E is for Easter Candy

 

April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so I will be sharing previous posts this month for the A-Z Challenge, drawn from the over 2,000 I have written. 

When I first planned this post, I thought it would be for Saturday, the day before Easter. But I was mixed up. However, I think it's still okay to post today, the day after Easter, as the main topic is the jelly beans. Originally, I did this post in 2019 for "J" during the A-Z Challenge, but I've adapted it for "E".

At the end, there will be an Extra section about something we saw yesterday.

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Jelly Beans

The techniques for making jelly beans have been around for hundreds of years, but when they were first made is uncertain. One thing people seem to agree on is that the first time they were mentioned in writing in the US was in 1861 by William Schrafft, a candy maker, who encouraged people to send jelly beans to the troops. In 1905, they were selling for 9 cents/pound in Chicago.

Did you know that jelly beans weren't associated with Easter until the 1930's when someone decided they looked like eggs, as well as beans? Before that, they were considered a Christmas candy, and even today, after Easter, Christmas is the next most popular time for jelly bean consumption. That is a fact that is broadening my horizons because I have never associated jelly beans with Christmas. However, a quick Google search showed that there are plenty of people out there who are happy to sell you red and green jelly beans, so there must be something to it.

And speaking of jelly beans looking like eggs, when I think of jelly beans, I always think of eggs. Never as beans, which now seems curious since they are called jelly beans. However, when I mentioned the Christmas and Easter facts about the candies to Ward, he said he guessed that they could look like eggs, but he always thinks of them as beans, because after all, they are called beans. And after all of these years of marriage, who knew we had such differing ideas about jelly beans? :)

One of my thoughts for this post was that maybe I could make some homemade jelly beans and share my experience. I had no idea how to make them, but since it's the day of Google and YouTube, I thought there would be some easy instructions to find. And I was right. There were several recipes involving gelatin, sugar, candy thermometers, and lots of time for drying. (Here's my favorite.) It would have been an interesting experiment, but I should have thought of it before last night.

I had a few more things to share on the subject, like Jelly Bellies were the first jelly beans to add the flavor to the inside instead of just in the coating, but I think this post has reached its natural conclusion. I'm hungry now, and I don't think anything will satisfy me except jelly beans. And I may not even wait until they are marked down after Easter to buy some.

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E is also for Extra Easter Candy.

A neighboring town features a Peeps show every year as a fundraiser for the Arts Council. Yes, I mean those kinds of Peeps--those marshmallowy little chicks and bunnies that make a grand appearance every Easter. This year, we got to see the show for the first time. There were 196 entries of all kinds of imaginative things done with Peeps or a Peeps theme. They were made by kids, adults, charities, nursing homes, artists, and anyone who had an inclination. Below are a few pictures from our visit to the Peep show.

Until next time..

Happy Easter and Lone Star State, Days Ten, Eleven, and Twelve

I'm taking a break from the A-Z challenge today to wish you Happy Easter and to finish our vacation summary.

Happy Easter from my third-grade self. 😊

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Travel, Visiting, and a Blast from the Past

On day ten, we traveled from Austin back to Dallas. But first, we had lunch with my former supervisor, who had recently relocated to Austin from Maryland. It was kind of crazy that I hadn't seen her since a year ago, when I retired, but met up with her in Texas. It was fun catching up without the constraints of a manager/employee relationship.

Then it was on the road again. Austin was another big city with impressive traffic and lots of confusing interchanges, but we made it back to the open road. As we got closer to Dallas, we decided to stop at Buc-ee's. Buc-ee's is essentially a truck stop on steroids, and we were told that it was a must-see. They began in Texas after we left and have spread across several southern states, but none have made it as far north as we live. One of Buc-ee's claims to fame is its very clean restrooms. They did not disappoint in this area. 

There was a lot of Buc-ee merchandise of all kinds (and lots of other pretty nice stuff). Buc-ee was available for pictures.

But I quickly found what I was looking for-the fudge counter. We got a pound of assorted varieties to take to our friends in Dallas.

We stayed with friends in Dallas the next two nights and had a good time telling stories and eating delicious homemade food. However, we did go see a couple more things. First up was South Fork Ranch, from the TV series Dallas fame. If you're not familiar, Dallas was the longest-running nighttime soap opera from 1978 to 1991. It gained international fame with the cliffhanger of "Who shot JR?"

Me and my friend, that dastardly JR Ewing.

We toured the ranch house. Some of the show was filmed here, and some on a sound stage in Hollywood.

Ward got to try out Bobby's Mercedes 450 SL.

The plan for the afternoon was to do some hiking in a nearby park. However, it was very windy, so instead we went browsing at one of Ward's favorite stores, Woodcraft. There are none close to us, so he doesn't get the chance to go there as often as he would like.

I looked around for a while, then went to the car to read and let Ward browse to his heart's content.

The next afternoon, we headed to the airport for our flight home. Despite extra delays in many airports because of TSA staffing, we had no problems. In addition, our flights were on time and routine. Just the way we like them, and experience has taught us to be thankful for that when it happens.

We are home now and getting back into our routines and responsibilities. It was a great vacation with just the right mix of sightseeing and visiting with friends. I just wish we lived closer, and we will try to make the next visit so long in the making.

Thanks for coming along on our trip.

Until next time...

D is for Don't Assume

 

April is the 15th anniversary of my blog, so I will be sharing previous posts this month from over 2000 that I have written. Today, we're revisiting a post from November 2015 when a conversation made me think twice.

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Live and Learn--Don't assume

I was thinking about the title of my blog last night and how we learn throughout our entire lives. I thought I'd start sharing some of the things I've learned through living. I think you'll find most of these lessons are not unique to me, but things we all figure out one way or another.

The first: "Don't assume you know what others are thinking."

We observe others, and from their actions, we assume we know what they're thinking. The problem is that we bring our perspective to the situation, which can be different from that of the other person. Sometimes, this leads us to the wrong conclusion. This happens even in what seems to be the most obvious of situations (especially with kids).

An applesauce-lovin' Wally
(with wild hair)

Here's an example:

When Wally was a toddler, he loved yogurt and applesauce mixed together. We'd give him a bowl, and he would quickly gobble it down. I was happy that he enjoyed this healthful snack. A recent conversation with an adult Wally, however, revealed that all was not as it seemed. It turns out that Wally liked applesauce but not yogurt so much. He kept eating because he was trying to see where the applesauce went. He said he was always disappointed because he never found it.

Wow. That was a surprise. I had never thought about the concept of mixing, and when kids understand that. I just thought he liked applesauce mixed with yogurt. I was wrong.

This example helps me think twice before I judge what others say and do. When someone says or does something that I don't understand, I try to remember that maybe there's something going on that I don't know.

Have you ever been surprised when you learned the background behind what someone has said or done?

Until next time...

C is for Cats

 This month is the 15th anniversary of my blog, so I will be sharing previous posts this month from over 2000 that I have written. It's not easy to pick, but I had to have at least one about our cats. We have had 6 different cats over the years, and they have been an important part of our lives. Today, you will get to know a little about our cat, Lucy. 

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Day in the Life of Lucy

  

Lucy started her day with a little breakfast.

Then she decided to join Wally, who was still in bed.

After her nap with Wally, she joined the family in 
a game of Scrabble.

She soon became bored with Scrabble and decided 
to play cards instead.

All the game playing tired her out, so she took another 
nap with the rest of the cats.

After her rest, she tried her paws at some arts and crafts.

The tedium of the arts and crafts made her nervous, so she chewed on a box to calm herself before her next nap.

When she woke up, she was hungry and demanded to be fed.

After eating, she decided that she would watch some TV with Annie and me, but soon fell asleep.

With her last burst of energy for the day, she caught a "mouse."

And she fell asleep for the night beside Ward.

The end.

Until next time...

B is for Beaver

B is for Beaver, or Leave it to Beaver, that is.

 This month marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so I will be sharing previous posts from over 2000 that I have written. 

For those of you who might be blog-hopping here during the A-Z challenge, I'll catch you up on my blog aliases. Below is the post that explains the main characters in my blog. This originally appeared in May 2013, but I post it every few years for new readers here. So here it goes again. 

Also, there will be a little bonus section at the end. 

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Leave it to Beaver or the Family We're Based On

You may have noticed that my family has the names of Ward, June, Wally, and Theodore. Some of you may have thought that those were our real names. However, some of you may have realized that those are our aliases based on names from the TV show  Leave It to Beaver. Leave It to Beaver was a situation comedy that aired from 1957 to 1963 and is still in reruns today. 

The show revolved around the Cleaver Family — Ward and June, the parents, and Wally and Theodore (also known as the Beaver), their sons. The premise of the show was that Beaver and Wally got themselves into scrapes that frustrated their parents, but from which everyone ultimately learned a lesson.

When I chose these aliases for my blog world, I didn't think much about the significance, except that there were the right number and gender in the Cleaver family, and they were from a show that made me smile when I thought about it.

In this post, I had planned to talk about the details of the Cleaver family and compare and contrast them with my family. However, that's too much work, so I'm just going to tell you a couple of things I found interesting about the making of the show that resonates with me.

--The makers of the show wanted to get gentle laughs. If anything got a really big laugh, they changed the script to make it more of a chuckle or smile. While I love a good belly laugh, the gentle laugh fits with my basic philosophy of life: Everything in moderation.

--June often wore pearls and heels when she was cooking and cleaning around the house. This is often made fun of because it was so unrealistic. However, once I heard an interview with the actress who played June, and she explained why those wardrobe choices were made.

 Apparently, the hollow at the bottom of her neck looked strange on film, so they had her wear pearls to fix the problem. Also, as the actors who played Wally and Beaver grew, they wanted her to be taller than them to still look authoritative as a parent. Thus, they had her put on heels. While you'll never find me cooking and cleaning in either pearls or heels, this reminds me that snap judgments are often wrong. Many times, you just don't know all of the facts.

--Leave it to Beaver was the first TV show in which the kids were the main focus and not the parents. I don't have anything meaningful to say about this except that I find it interesting.

Another time, I may go into individual episodes, but for now, you know where our blog names came from.

But Wait There's More!

 If you read here very often and you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that several other major and minor Leave It to Beaver characters show up in my posts.

B is for Bonus Pictures

We got back yesterday from an almost two-week trip to Texas. When we left, spring was starting to show itself with crocuses blooming and a daffodil here and there. Now the fruit trees are blooming, and some daffodils have bloomed, and some are starting to wither. I was very excited by what I saw, so I'm going to share a few pictures.

Daffodil

Phlox

Neighbor's ornamental cherry

Quince

Daffodil

Hellebore

Vinca

Sour cherry

Forsythia

Crab apple

Pear

Ornamental Plum

Until next time...