no more bedhead

"Kramer, you have been a bad boy!!"  Edna, our next-door neighbor exclaimed from her back porch. Ellen and Miriam went over to see as Edna said "Oooh, do I have something to show you".  As they approached the porch, Edna held the lifeless body of a young rabbit over the railing.

As she set it down she said "Oh, it's breathing. It's still alive!"  Not knowing what to do exactly, possession of the rabbit transferred to our family. The box top was brought out and the bunny placed gently in it. It had some greenery in it's mouth, as if it was eating when Kramer the cat got it, so some more was added to the box.

After a couple of minutes it sat up, but it was still pretty dazed and it's breathing was heavy.  As Ellen, Miriam, and I stood over the box, it breathed its last.  RIP little guy.


The bunny was given a nice burial in the backyard. Now all that's left to do is to wipe up the tears.

Saturday started out bright with a little chill to the air as I climbed aboard my motorcycle and headed out.  I was bound for Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days.  The trip would take me just about two hours through some back roads, towns I never knew existed (Nashville, OH?), and Amish Country.  By the time I reached the venue, the day was starting to warm up.

The route started with some pretty main state roads, but ended with some surface roads that were not well marked (or at least well marked with the route numbers, as I was expecting).  I did make one wrong turn, which actually proved fortuitous.  I sensed the error almost immediately and pulled over to check the map on my phone. Yes, I should have turned left, but I also looked ahead and found the route (303) that was the next turn. Except it wasn't.  There was actually a turn before it, onto 603 for about 100 yards before it intersected with 303.  Had I not gotten lost and checked the map, I would have blown right by it.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and I pulled into Mid-Ohio pretty much on schedule. I laughed at the hundreds of motorcycles parked on the grass next to the "No Parking on Grass" signs, and pulled mine into line and shut down the engine.  Slathering on the sunscreen I made my way toward the paddock area, noting how good it was to be back.  (I hadn't been there since Ellen's brother Jim moved from Ohio and stopped racing cars.)

The 20th Anniversary Vintage Motorcycle Days featured Indian as its "Marque of the Year".  The Indian tent was full of some classic bikes that I really wished I could take out for a spin.  I grabbed a picture of a 1929 Indian Scout that is owned by a guy not very far from where I live.

Although his was probably closer to 1920, when I imagine the Indian that my grandfather rode, this is what I picture.

I also entered to win a 1949 Indian, but I didn't win. :-(

One of the features of the show is the "world's largest motorcycle swap meet".  I spent about an hour wandering around that, but think I only saw maybe half of it.  If you're looking for motorcyle parts or an old, used, beat-up (or not so beat-up) bike, that's the place to be.  I'd love to get a hold of a 1983 Honda Nighthawk - my first bike - and I'm thinking that might be a place to look for it. Next year.

In the swap meet area were a couple of motorcycle enthusiast clubs.  I was pretty taken by the Ariel bikes.  I think I had seen a couple at the International Motorcycle Show over the winter, but for some reason the ones I saw here intrigued me. I don't know much about the bikes, but I think it might be fun to learn more.

While I'm really a city boy, one of the things I like about the small town in which we live is the number of community oriented activities that take place.  Hands down my favorite, though, is the museum Island Party, the 20th Annual version of which was held last night.

The Island Party is sponsored by the Massillon Museum, and is held on the museum grounds and the adjoining municipal building plaza. It features live music and good food.  I like it because it's great to just go hang out and enjoy the evening - admission is free, and it's a really mellow atmosphere.

This year the music featured the Jackson High School Steel Drum band and the reggae band Umojah Nation [Facebook].  In the previous years, the reggae band was Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band [Facebook], but this new (for the party) band was also awesome!

As we walked in we saw our friend Brayden manning the meat roasting pit, cooking up some tasty pulled pork and jerk chicken.  For the first time that I can remember, there was a giant sand sculpture right by the entrance.  The museum had been posting pictures for a couple of days prior, showing it being built.  This is what it looked like completed:

Our last full day in Vermont started with Ellen and me heading down into Waterbury on a Heady Topper quest. Actually, I was looking for the Craft Beer Cellar, which I hoped would have Heady, but at least would have a good selection of craft brews.

Our plan was temporarily thwarted by Waterbury's "Not quite Independence Day" parade.  The parade was going right down Rt. 100 past the store, so we couldn't get there. We did find a side street place to park, and walked a couple of blocks to the store, though. Even though we missed the parade, we got there in time to see the fire truck with the giant American flag that was hanging over the route. Ellen took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook.  The kids saw it and now think we went to a parade without them!

The Craft Beer Cellar did have Heady, with a one four-pack per person limit, so we got two, and a couple of other things that looked interesting. Definitely a place to check out earlier in the week next time.

The afternoon saw the cousins come over and they took the kids fishing in the little brook by the house.  Everyone caught fish and threw them back in, but a couple of them were too badly damaged to return to the water, so those came home.

John taught Iain how to clean a fish, then Liam fried them up for a tasty dinner.

Cleaning the fish

Plated

 It was a nice, relaxing end to our Vermont vacation.  Sunday saw us back on the highway to Connecticut to spend the night (and one more time at Village Pizza), then back to Ohio on Monday.

On Friday we were going to go to Texas Falls, but all the people who had to drive didn't want to drive that long.  So, we called an audible and went to Shelburne Farms instead.  It was a lot of fun.

Main barn and grounds from the trailhead

We toured the main barn area and the kids got to see the cows, goats, and chickens in the barn. We also went to the outdoor area where those animals roam (relatively) freely.

A chicken crossing the road. I asked 'why?', and he said 'BRAAWWK'.

We hiked one of the trails on the grounds that led to a spectacular view of Lake Champlain.



My favorite place was the cheesemaking area.  We went back there several times throughout the day to watch them making, well, cheese.  It's an interesting process that takes all day, but makes a very large amount of cheese - they make about 140,000 pounds per year.  And, of course, they had samples.  Very tasty.  I enjoyed the 2-Year cheese very much.

Zack making the cheese. The cheese has been cut into "fingers" and he's "salting" it to stop the process

As Iain and I were intrigued by the process, we bought a book with recipes and tips for making your own cheese at home. Can't wait!!

As we were leaving - by way of tractor-pulled cart - I noticed the bread shop/bakery. I've been to Shelburne Farms twice, and neither time did I go to the bakery. I don't know why, but I have to remember to make that the first stop next time I go. Unless there's something interesting in the cheese making.

Today had us laying about "Stowe Haus" for a while, then Laura joined us and we headed into Stowe proper. We took a back way that avoided all the traffic on Route 100, and as a bonus, featured a covered bridge!  The road that passed through the bridge was a dirt road, and I noticed that the road was actually better maintained than the asphalt streets back home.

The "back way" also had the advantage of coming out right by the place where we usually park.  Ellen and Laura took the kids into the post office to mail a postcard to our neighbor.  The kids were excited to see this, as they have never been in a post office before (or so they claim).  Still, the card was hand-cancelled, so they got to see that which is kind of cool.

We went to our regular stops at the Stowe Mercantile, which has all kinds of Vermont-related items, from food to beer to t-shirts to games and toys.  Ellen found some jelly made with Heady Topper beer, and picked that up. The sample that was out was made with a porter and that was pretty tasty, so I'm going to have to make some Bready Topper when we get home and see how the Heady Jelly tastes on it. (If it's good, we - and you - can order it from Potlicker Kitchen.)

I get tired of shopping easily, so while everyone was still in the mercantile (and the shops in the same building), I went outside to enjoy the sunshine and the view of downtown Stowe from a bench.  Found a friend, too:



As I was sitting there, I started to smell something good.  I looked up the street and could see what looked like some people setting up a large grilling device on the side of the road. Smoke poured out of it, and the smell was delicious.  As I looked more closely, something wasn't right. It almost looked like that smoke was coming out of a car. In fact, that car almost looked like an old-style Volkswagen Beetle.  I had to investigate.

I was right. Behold the Carbecue:


Apparently, they are in Maryland and Vermont. Ellen, Laura, and the kids found me there and Ellen lamented the fate of the Bug.  I thought it was brilliant!

We wandered around Stowe for a while longer, finally ending up back at the Carbecue. It was there for a small craft fair that was just getting under way, so we browsed through that on our way back to the car.  We did come across a great booth for Green Village Soap Co. [Etsy / Facebook], whose producst are similar to Lush's - natural products, goat's milk soaps, etc.  We got some charcoal-based soap to try when we get home, and Ellen got some deodorant that smells really nice.

One last shot from Stowe, presented without commentary:

The day started out with promise. Iain needed to be in Burlington by 11:00 to go on a tour of St. Michael's College with Liam.  Ellen and I planned on doing the only two things on my "must do" Vermont list - Green Mountain Harley-Davidson, and the "bevvy" (Winooski Beverage) to see which Vermont craft brews we might like to take home, and get some cases of Heady Topper.  Dinner would be at Laura's.

We got Iain to town on time (almost).  When he returned the plan changed to Ellen and Laura going out shopping (taking the two older kids downtown), and I would stay home with the younger kids. While they were downtown, Iain went to the 3-D printing store and one of his models, the spaceship, was ready to bring home. The Ganesha we'll have to pick up.

Between their trip downtown, dinner, and hanging out, I spent 11 hours sitting on a couch.  So, nothing to report today.

The weather was gorgeous for a Sunday drive from Connecticut to Vermont.  Travel was easy, everyone was excited, but the best part was the motorcycles. It was the last day of Laconia (NH) Motorcycle Week, and people were starting to head home. The southbound lanes of I-91 had a lot of extra motorcycle traffic, and I was filled with a mix of joy (at seeing the different bikes) and jealousy (at not being out there).

We got to Stowe in pretty good time and got settled in to "Stowe Haus".  Ellen's brother-in-law John's brother is a retired colonel from the army, but he's been hired as a consultant to do whatever it was he was doing when he was active duty.  This means that he is still "stationed" in Germany. He has a house in Stowe so that he and his family will have a place to go when they come back to the states, and I think it will be a place to live upon permanent return.  In the meantime, the house gets rented out, and we are beneficiaries of that largesse.

Laura and Liam and Maggie were there to greet us upon our arrival, and Liam and I ended up sitting around watching the USA-Portugal World Cup match.  It was a thrilling game, that ended in a tie as Portugal scored just before the end of extra time in the second half.  Now the US has to beat or tie Germany on Thursday to move on to the elimination round.

Monday saw us head in to Laura's house in Colchester. We had decided to go to Burlington and to the Church Street Marketplace to do some shopping and visit our niece Libby, who works at Ben & Jerry's (score!!).  We wandered around, visiting shops we usually frequent, like Earthbound (clothes, but also incense, cool Buddhist/Hindu statuary, and other eclectic stuff), Frog Hollow (locally made art pieces) and stores we've recently discovered, like Saratoga Olive Oil Company (this year we bought two vinegars - fig and coconut - and some spice rubs - Adobo and Kentucky something.

One really cool store that wasn't there last year is Blu-Bin.  They do 3-D printing on site. You can purchase items that have been printed, or you can bring them your own files and they will print them.  They also will scan something you bring in, and create the file for printing.  I thought Iain's head was going to pop off when he discovered this store.  When we got back to Stowe Haus, we had to scour the internet for 3-D printing plans that he could take in.  We found a spaceship from one of the video games he plays, and a Ganesha. Blu-bin's website is "under construction", but here's an article from Burlington's Seven Days newspaper about the store.

As we were wandering around, we got a text from Libby that Ben & Jerry's was pretty slow and that would be a good time to come in.  I had a cone of Coconut Seven Layer Bar.  It was yummy.  Here's all of us enjoying our tasty treats:


Tuesday turned out to be a low-key kind of day. We stayed on the Stowe side of the mountains that separate Stowe from Burlington, and we visited the Danforth Pewter Store, the Lake Champlain Chocolates Store, and the Cabot Cheese outlet. (They are all in the same complex, so easy to do all at once.)

The chocolate store has some interesting things, including a chocolate filled with cider from Citizen Cider.  Laura got some for us to try and it was very tasty.  They also have a wall of "seconds", so I got a Sea Salt and Caramel chocolate bar off of that wall that was a-mah-zing!!  (Love the crunchy bits of salt!)

The Cabot store is a hard one to get out of without lightening your wallet.  They have samples of what seems to be all their cheeses, so you can just continue to walk around the table filling up.  All those cheeses are then available for sale in the cooler. Along with butter and yogurt, and local beer, and syrups.  The syrups also have a tasting station. I especially loved the "hot" infused syrups - Sweet Heat, Sweet Chai, and Sweet Ginger especially.

Dinner at Dave's
I had touched base with Dave just prior to coming to Connecticut, and we arranged to get our families together at his house on Friday night for burgers and swimming. Shortly before it was time to leave, Dave called me to let me know his wife was sick and he needed to cancel.  Sadly, that meant that we wouldn't see each other this trip.  But, hopefully, it wasn't anything serious and Colleen is okay.

Seeing Nicole
Speaking of people I wasn't going to see, I thought I wasn't going to get to see my niece Nicole.  She was supposed to come to Marilyn's for dinner on Monday, but something happened and she couldn't make it. She had to work the rest of the week and I figured we wouldn't see her, but fortunately she was able to come over on Saturday for a little while.  At least long enough for a selfie:


Hartt School of Music
Iain is interested in studying music composition in college. During dinner with Nancy, she mentioned Hartt School of Music. I had a 'duh' moment. I grew up here, hearing all about Hartt, and totally forgot about it when Iain expressed his interest.

On Friday, we were planning to go to Elizabeth Park, so we stopped a UHa (or as Iain calls it, Uhhhhh....) to check out the campus and facilities. I took the other three kids and we explored the campus while Iain and Ellen bopped around the Hartt School, visited Admissions, and explored on their own.  We all met up at the bookstore where Iain bought a very cool Hartt school t-shirt.  Naturally I don't have a picture of it - teenage boy and all - but it says "The Hartt School - music/dance/theatre".  It's pretty slick. [Update - found a link where you can buy them, so at least you can see what the t-shirt looks like.]

Oh, and he liked the campus and what he could find out about the school. He's going to visit St. Michael's College while we're in Vermont, too.

Lego Store/Lush
On Tuesday we had to go to the Lego store in Westfarms Mall to get a copy of the Lego Movie on it's release date.  Jamie was super excited!!  Mission accomplished, and Granny got each of the kids a cup-full of Legos from the bulk Lego wall, so that was kind of cool.  I got a Lego Batman minifig for my backpack.

As we were getting ready to leave, we stopped in to Lush, a Body Shop-type store that I had never heard of before, but looked (and smelled) like a place that Ellen would like very much. (Turns out it was started by the people who supplied Body Shop with the bulk of their products early on.  Some disagreements about the direction of the company led them to branch out on their own.) The have lots of soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc.  Ironically, it was me who walked out of the store with the big order!  I got:

• Shaving cream - Dirty, which smells amazing and is great on my face and head.  I would like to try Prince at some point, too.  It's a lot thicker.
• Deodorant - Aromaco, which is all-natural, and on me causes no irritation, and keeps me dry and smelling good all day long. Seriously.
• "Toothy tabs" - little tablets that you crush in your mouth and then run a wet tootbrush around. Leaves your teeth feeling fresh and clean.  We got Ultrablast (my favorite), and Sparkle.  The salesman gave us a sample of Atomic, which is cinnamon/clove flavor.

The closest store to us is about an hour away, but they do mail-order, so it's all good.

Ferry Ride
Of course, no trip to Wethersfield would be right without a ride on the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry.  Started in 1655, it is the oldest continuously operated ferry in the US. (Fun Fact I did not know until researching this post - it's in Billy Joel's video "River of Dreams" - FF to 1:40 - which was shot in Middletown.)

Heading toward Glastonbury

New Motorcycle
My sister and brother-in-law, Bill, bought a 2014 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy.  Same as me, except 3 years newer and 103ci engine (versus 96ci).  I didn't get to ride it, but I did get to sit on it. It's really nice. I can't wait to have my bike here so we can go out riding.

Of course, we give my brother a hard time for being the only one of the siblings without a Harley, and without a tattoo!

Me and their bike. It looks like I'm up to no good.

Capsized Boat
We were sitting at Village Pizza when the volunteer fire department horn sounded. A short time later, the rescue units headed down toward the Cove.  There was an 'inflatable' boat, followed by a 'real' boat, followed by Glastonbury's boat.  Obviously, something was up. Just then, the ambulance crew stopped in to Village and we asked what was happening. They said a boat had supposedly capsized in the river, but they hadn't been spotted yet. So the rescue crew was going out to investigate.

Since we were basically done with dinner, we headed to the Cove, and that was indeed what was happening. We watched them for a while until they 'cleared' over the radio without having found any evidence of a boat/boater in distress.

Being at the Cove at that time of night allowed me to get this picture of the Cove at twilight after the kids had been plunking rocks into it. I think it came out pretty well.

Last year we tried to go to Elizabeth Park. Made it there for about 5 minutes when the heavens opened up in a torrential thunderstorm.  Had to drive home through downtown Hartford in it, and it was not pleasant.

This year we decided to try again, and we got a beautiful day!  We still only wandered around the Rose Garden and didn't make it to the other gardens, but it was a blast.  We've decided that next year we are going to pack a picnic lunch and spend a little more time there (providing it doesn't rain!).

My high school life is divided into two parts - Senior year, and everything prior to Senior year. During Senior year I met (or became closer friends) with Enzo, Mark, and Dave, and we've remained pretty close throughout the years.  Prior to Senior year I was friends with a whole different group of people, but the inevitable drift apart after high school started a little earlier.

Last year, Mark (from the pre-Senior group) got in contact with me and a couple of others about the possibility of getting together to catch up. Sounded like a good plan to me, so last year Mark came down from the Boston-area to meet me, Kit, and Dave (from the pre-Senior group).  It turned out to be a really great evening of catching up and I was looking forward to doing it again this year.

Part of the problem of the "Last Minute Tour of New England" is that I couldn't give people my travel itinerary until, well, the last minute. That made out-of-town travel arrangements a challenge. Mark and Kit weren't a problem, but Dave already had plans to be away.  We would love to get Henry here, but he lives in Seattle and the last-minute flights were over $900. (He likes us, but not that much!)  Adam works for the State Department and is currently stationed in Zambia, so he pulled the old "I'm halfway around the world - I can't make it" excuse.  Allen was in town, so he said he'd try to meet up.  So, we arranged to meet at Lucky Lou's on Wednesday.

As Ellen and I arrived at Lucky Lou's, we met Kit and his wife Kristen.  As we were being seated on the patio, I got a message from Allen that he would be unable to join us. Immediately thereafter I got a call from Mark that he was running about 15 minutes late. Our waitress came over and we decided to order beer and appetizers. I ordered a Shock Top.  A couple minutes after the order was placed she returned to tell me that there was no Shock Top. Okay, I ordered a Guinness.

Mark showed up. No beer and appetizers yet. We had a nice conversation, but still no beer and appetizers. After about a half hour (and a reminder from us), our beers showed up.  After we had finished those, the waitress came back and took our meal order. We reminded her that we were waiting on appetizers and she apologized, stating "the burgers take a while to cook".  We had ordered nachos and bruschetta, so I don't know why the burgers were holding them up, but anyway...

The next time we saw the waitress, she was bringing us our entrees. When we expressed our surprise that the appetizers still hadn't shown up, she said that they would be out in about two minutes.  We explained that, no, since the entrees were there there would be no need for appetizers anymore. I guess she missed the point of "appetizers".

The rest of the meal was uneventful - from a service perspective. We continued to have a nice conversation and it was great getting more caught up than we did previously.  Kit and Kristen had to leave early last year, so it was nice getting caught up with him, and finding out a little more about her.

Eventually the waitress showed up again to see if we wanted any dessert. Yeah, like I have that kind of time!  Actually, Kit suggested we go to Main Street Creamery, which Mark didn't know about.  So we got the bill. Now, you're expecting me to say that we paid and went for ice cream. Hold your horses! Not that easy...not that night.

The bill arrived and right at the top was the Shock Top that I ordered but they didn't have. That led to some pretty close scrutiny, but everything else seemed in order.  So Kit and I each pulled out a credit card, and Mark pulled out cash.  The three of us sat there looking at each other. Three freakin' geniuses stymied by how to properly/equitably split the bill. After several minutes of mumbling about how should pay what and how, Kristen came to our rescue with a suggestion that Kit and I split the bill 50/50 on our cards, and Mark pay the tip.  Relieved that someone figured it all out for us, we readily agreed, and we we headed off to Main St. Creamery for a delicious end to the evening.

Although we did agree that next year's get together should be a Village Pizza.

And, sadly, no pictures were taken.

Nancy and I go back to college. We ran in the same circle of friends, were both involved in the theatre, and were both from Connecticut. Naturally, we became friends.  Like most friends from early on in life, we kind of lost touch over the years.  Fortunately we reconnected a couple of years ago, and last year when we came through town we got together for a visit.

Her husband, David, is also from her hometown and went to college with us, but he got there right as I was transitioning back from one college to another, and I don't remember him as part of the group I was running with at the time.  Turns out he's a pretty cool guy. We bonded over Rush, and he showed me Rush's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech. Blah, blah, blah.

Nancy and David have two kids - one of whom is about Iain's age, and the other is Kate's age.  When we got together last year it was if they were all long-lost friends!  I think we were at Nancy's house for about 5 minutes before all the kids disappeared, leaving the adults in their wake.

When we visited last year, Nancy and David were just getting ready to move from Avon to Hartford.  This year part of our "reconnecting" was finding out where they currently live.

Turns out they live in a gorgeous 1916 house about a block away from Elizabeth Park. It has two pantries (although they are going to remodel one away), a carriage entrance (where the door into the house is actually at carriage height, and opens into their dining room), and three full floors.  The third floor was originally the servants quarters, and they're talking about turning it into a rental unit. (Although Nancy joked that after the kids go off to school, she and David could live there and rent the rest of the house!) Oak woodwork everywhere, except the third floor - pine. It's on a beautiful tree-lined street, and there was virtually no "city noise" as we enjoyed their backyard hospitality.  So, I'm very jealous of their house.

It was great seeing them again. The kids went off to watch "The Lego Movie" and the adults gabbed in the backyard until it was too dark to see each other! We talked a lot of theatre, and Nancy suggested that we get tickets to Cleveland Playhouse, as they are a LORT theatre (as is Nancy's employer - Goodspeed Opera House) which produces their own productions - rather than a "touring" theatre like Playhouse Square, which brings in the touring companies.  She has a good point - support the local community - and we'll have to see what they're doing this year.

Like last year, the evening wound down with us watching the DVR'd recording of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. This year we watched Peter Gabriel (am-ah-zing!!), Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens.  We didn't make it to Nirvana or the E Street Band as it was getting late.

When we were driving home last year I realized that, although it had been probably 20 years since we had last seen each other, it felt like we had always been together and it was just our weekly get-together at Nancy's house.  Consequently, no one had thought to take a picture.  This year, I remembered.  Pictures were taken.  However, my phone's camera flash was set to "auto" and for some reason decided that there was plenty of light inside Nancy's house and didn't need to go off.  So, I ended up with the stereotypical "crappy cell phone photos" of the evening.  Oh well, there's always next year.

The best photo of the bunch. At full size, it looks like I've played with the artistic filters too much!

Our annual trek east was somewhat up in the air due to some of Ellen's school obligations, so I was unable to give people the exact dates until about a week or so before we were ready to head out, resulting in my referring to this, tongue-in-cheek, as the "Last Minute Tour of New England". I think it may have worked out to our advantage as I was able to do some rapid scheduling without over-thinking things, and it turned out to be a very pleasant, restful week.

We arrived in Connecticut on Saturday evening, and within the hour I was at Village Pizza. (Had to get my "half roast beef grinder with mayo, cold, with everything".)  That out of the way, we settled in at mom's house.

Sunday saw us heading down to the Wethersfield Cove to see the Cove Warehouse.  Growing up a few houses away (I could actually see the warehouse from my bedroom window), I am intimately familiar with it. But my kids are not, and Kate really wanted to see it.  It was broken into over the winter, and through community donations has been rebuilt and reopened as an interactive display of commerce of early Wethersfield specifically, and the nascent nation in general.  The hours are limited to weekend days from 1:00-4:00, so we took advantage of our first day there to visit.

Cove Warehouse selfie

Wethersfield Cove panorama shot from window of Cove Warehouse

When I was a kid the warehouse was open frequently. I remember playing inside, and being stung by a boat-load (hive-load?) of bees once.  Then I guess funding dried up and it was closed for the rest of my time at home. It was fun to get back inside again after all these years.

After the nostalgia trip, we went over to my cousin Liz's house for a pool-party/family get-together.  She usually has us come over when we're in town, and unfortunately she was one of the people that I had not contacted. Nonetheless, she heard we were coming and invited us all over for pizza. Always a good time.

This time was special-er (is that a word?) because I got to visit with my cousin Michael, who I haven't seen in a few years as he's been unable to attend these get-togethers. He was wearing an awesome t-shirt featuring the old Hartford Whalers "Pucky the Whale" logo.  I was telling him about my jersey (from the later team years), and we were laughing that we were referring to the "new" logo for a team that ceased to exist in 1979!

We also got to visit with Liz's husband, Tom, who has been out of town on work-related trips the previous times we've done this. Turns out that Tom went to college in Vermont, so we talked about the places that we go during the second week of our vacation, and the Vermont micro-brew industry. He requested that we bring back a case of The Alchemist Brewery's Heady Topper (which I think is the best beer - ever) for him. I'm hoping we can manage that.

Sitting around Liz and Tom's pool selfie

On Monday, we had dinner at Auntie Marilyn's house. This year the menu included something new - ham loaf.  It was tasty, and Marilyn made enough for us to bring back to Mom's house so we had ham loaf sandwiches later in the week. It's always fun to visit at Auntie's as it's a chance for my siblings and me to get together and bust on each other. (Love you guys!)

Chinese food for dinner last night means more fortune(s).
I don't know if I would have chosen the word "befall", but I'll take it!!

Although I really want to be, I am not a hat person.

Oh, I've tried. I usually end up in baseball cap land.  I wore the occasional cap as a kid (and actually at one point had a cap for each major league team, but that's another blog post), and I had several versions of Boston Red Sox caps, because Sawx!  Since I started shaving my head I'm very conscious about wearing a cap when out in the sun during the summer.

In the late 70's - early 80's I had a Greek sailor's cap that I wore sometimes.  In the 90's for a while I wore a black fedora that I picked up on St. Mark's Place in Greenwich Village.  This was before all the hipsters discovered fedoras. But overall nothing really seemed to stick.

I bought a beret when the band was having its "rummage sale" and were getting rid of the surplus tuba berets. It's not in the greatest shape (the felt is great, but the band is quite ragged), and it's okay.  However, Ellen bought one too, and started wearing it regularly. I thought we'd look really dopey if we both wore one out together, so mine hangs above my desk.

The other issue I have is the size of my head. I have one of those big "pumpkin" heads, so it's hard to find a hat that fits well.  If you know anything about hat sizes, I'm a 7-7/8, or an 8.  That's huge.  So, getting a hat can be a challenge, especially as I want to try it on to make sure I won't be squeezing my head in a vise.

I have wanted a "driver's cap" for a while, something like Burt Lancaster's character* wore in Field of Dreams,

Lancaster and hat in Field of Dreams

 or like Burt Lancaster's character wore in Local Hero.

Lancaster and hat in Local Hero

[Hmmm...maybe I just want to be Burt Lancaster. I'll have to look into that one.]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Bready Topper!



I made it. My experiment with beer bread has culminated in a loaf made with the best beer I have ever had - Heady Topper.  It came out almost perfect - maybe a skosh too long so the peaks in the crust were a little browner that I was shooting for.  But, the flavor is awesome!  Tastes just like the beer, with that rich, hoppy flavor to it. Definitely not one to make sandwiches with*, but a nice slab of bread washed down with a tasty beverage - yum!

* Now that I say that, I'm starting to wonder - would this be good with, say, corned beef?  Or would I make a stout bread for that?  Hmmm...I wonder what meat/cheese combo goes well with beer bread? I may have my next experiment!

We had Chinese food for dinner the other night.  After dinner, we had fortune cookies.  This is the one I got:

Back in February, we went to the International Motorcycle Show.  It was awesome.  (I got to sit on a 2014 Indian Chief Vintage - totally want!)  While there, we visited all the different manufacturers and many of them had cards to fill out so they could get your contact information, usually in the guise of running a contest of some sort. Triumph Motorcycles was no exception.

I wasn't all that impressed with the Triumph lineup, but the cruisers did catch my eye. Of those, I especially liked the Thunderbird LT. I dutifully filled out my contact card, listing that as the bike that I'd like to test ride.

Last week I got an email from someone at Triumph stating that I had indicated I was interested in a test ride, but hadn't listed a model. I emailed back that I was interested in the Thunderbird LT, and got a follow up email that she would contact "her counterpart" who would arrange for a test ride.

Yesterday morning I got an email from him (the counterpart) who said he had spoken with a salesman at the closest Triumph dealer and that guy would be contacting me. His email went on to say that unfortunately the dealership didn't have any Thunderbird LTs in stock.  About an hour later I got a call from the dealership and was told that they had, just 20 minutes earlier, gotten one on the sales floor. Psyched, I made arrangements to go in on Saturday for a test ride.

Perhaps 10 minutes later, the phone rang again. It was the salesman calling to report that he is not allowed to let people test drive that bike, but he could make me a good deal on one if I still wanted to stop by. Ummmm...yeah.

So, I saved myself $17,000 and I got this crappy Triumph pen from the motorcycle show.

It's getting to be spring. Or so they say. The weather isn't really cooperating with that.  Still, it's time to get ready.  That means it'll soon be time for motorcycle riding.  And, I'll need some boots.  I've been wearing my sneakers for all my riding so far, but reluctantly.  I want something a little more sturdy and something that will keep my laces out of the way.

I ordered some boots. Specifically, Joe Rocket Big Bang 2.0 boots, from Revzilla.com.  I like the style, and the price is right.

Shortly after ordering the boots, I was lacing up my sneakers and busted out the second loop that holds the laces. As it was the second one in the row on the left shoe, it made securing the shoe to my foot almost impossible. Time to go out and buy new sneakers, too.

Got myself some Merrell Catalyst Ventilator shoes, similar to the Merrell Moab Ventilators that I usually get. This time, I was looking to get away from the brown/earth tones, and I found ones that are predominantly grey with some blue trim and have yellow and black laces. The Catalyst are a style from a couple of years ago, so I got a decent price on them.

Here are some photos:

New Sneakers!

New Boots!

I've been on a bread-baking kick this week. Somehow, I got the idea to make a Heady Topper bread. Heady Topper, brewed by The Alchemist, is, IMHO, the best beer ever. Allow me to say that I'm really not a hoppy beer enthusiast (give me a good strong porter or stout any day), but Heady hits you over the head with the hops.  And I like it - it works for me somehow.

Again, for some reason, I decided I wanted to make bread using Heady Topper. But, I didn't want to use a can until I knew that the recipe was going to work. (Heady is only available in Vermont, so I have a somewhat limited supply, that can only be refreshed on trips east.)  I did a quick search and found a beer bread recipe that looked promising, so I figured I try it out and get a good feel for it before I took a stab at the final goal.  I also thought that "testing the recipe" would be a good way to use up some of the, um, less-than-stellar beers that are just sitting here.

My first attempt was with a straight-up ale.  Figured I couldn't go wrong there.  I picked a bottle of Oberon Ale from Bell's Brewery.  Oberon is a Pale Wheat Ale that I gave a 2.5 star rating (out of 5*) on Untappd. Mixed it up, threw it in the oven, and an hour later had a really nice loaf of bread. Crispy crust, good flavor, tasted like bread.

Wanting to make a side-by-side comparison, I immediately made another loaf, this time using Abita Brewing Company's Turbodog.  Turbodog is a dark brown ale (that I rated 2.5 stars on Untappd).  Again, it produced a nice loaf of bread with a good taste.  The only difference really was that it was darker in color. I really didn't notice a difference in taste in my comparison.

The next day I thought I'd start moving toward my Heady goal, and I pulled out an Abita Jockamo IPA.  The Jockamo is an American Indian Pale Ale (wait, what?) and I actually enjoyed this offering from Abita, giving it 3.5 stars.  Still, this bottle went into the bowl.  What came out was pretty good. While I got the expected color difference from the other two loaves, what set this apart at first was the smell. It smelled like beer.  And not in that "down at the club, everyone has spilled their beer on the floor" kind of way. In a good way.  And, tasting it was great - it tasted hoppy.  There was a bitterness to the bread that was very unusual, yet satisfying.  This bodes well for the Heady bread (Bready?).

What's left of the IPA bread after one day. Nom, nom, nom!

In the meantime, I think I want to play around with the recipe some more. Maybe throw a stout at it to see how it reacts. Maybe try a smoked beer, or something unusual, just to see what happens.


*Heady Topper I rated a 5/5. I would have given it a 6.

Last night, Ellen and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was part of Playhouse Square's Broadway Series. Originally it wasn't one of the offerings, instead "The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" was supposed to be our March show.  We had already decided to opt out of that when they announced that Joseph would be replacing it.  I was happy because I actually wanted to see Joseph.  When I was a kid, Joseph was my sister's favorite soundtrack (or at least that's how I remember it based on the number of times I had to hear it), so I was familiar with the show and the music.

We got to the theatre later than normal, so I didn't have time to browse the Playbill as thoroughly as I wanted to, but I did notice that the two leads (Narrator - Diana DeGarmo,  and Joseph - Ace Young) were both American Idol "graduates".  Not only that, but they are married.  To each other.

The show opened with what first appeared to be smoke rising from the stage, but upon closer inspection proved to be a projection of smoke on a scrim.  As the lighting started to (slowly) rise, the figure of a sleeping man became apparent below where the smoke was being projected. The smoke then started to morph into images that swirled and changed, making it clear that this guy was dreaming.

This scene was framed by a false proscenium made of flown-in fabric. The sides were angled so that the bottom opening was wider than the top, and the top of the arch was made by a single straight fabric that was front of the other two.  It reminded me of a pharaoh's headpiece.  As the scrim rose and the guy woke up from his dream, projections started on this false proscenium.  They continued throughout the show as a way to set the scene, and were frankly amazing.

The lighting (by Howell Binkley) and projections (by Daniel Brodie) were consistently incredible throughout the course of the show. (I'll also shout out to scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, as I don't know which designer was responsible for which element, and suspect that they worked together closely to pull this off.)  There were some effects that stood out to me.  One was the interior lighting (or maybe projections?) of some of the set pieces. The set was very minimal - mostly blocks and platforms (door-sized) that could be carried around by the actors.  In a couple of instances some of the blocks glowed - clearly being lit internally.  Also there were three movable staircases, one of which was similarly lit internally.  The best part was that it was really subtle.  Both the stairs and the blocks looked like they could have just been reacting to the stage lights.

The other effect of note was projections on items other than the false proscenium (and other backdrops).  In one scene, Joseph's brothers were tending sheep (which appeared to be luaun board cutouts painted white). They picked up the sheep and held them together to create a "canvas" upon which was projected various graphical elements. Similarly, later in the show, angels costumed in white appeared on the stage. They came to the edge of the stage and held their arms out, allowing their flowing sleeves to merge together into another canvas for projection.  This concept culminated in the final scene when Joseph is standing on one of the stair units and the backdrop has been split into several pieces, all of which are attached to his coat. The backdrop then becomes a canvas for the projection of the continuation of his coat motif out and up over the cast.

Speaking of the coat, it was amazing (pardon the pun). Created by costume designer Jennifer Caprio, it was inspired by 12 stained glass windows that were created by Marc Chagall for the Abbell Synagogue at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.  You can read the whole story on the Joseph website.  I can't even begin to explain it, so I'll just have to show you.

This is the design (front on top):



Here's a photo of the coat in production:

Joseph in his coat, with the Narrator

Much of the acting/performing was great - the brothers especially.  I wasn't impressed with the Narrator, her voice was shrill and couldn't project over the musicians (even mic'd).  Joseph wasn't bad. He had a nice voice and seemed at his best when he was playing off the other characters.  I couldn't help but think that these two were on this tour in order to draw people in - "You saw them on American Idol, now see them On Stage!"  But, the supporting cast was fantastic. The brothers had some great lines, and played a lot of comedic effect, and the Pharoah was wonderful with his Elvis persona.  Between the main characters and the company all on stage, the choreography had to work, and it did.

Jacob with some of his sons (Joseph's brothers)