Tuesday 4, Let's Cook!

 This week's Tuesday 4 is about cooking. Play along if you like. 

If you've read here for very long, you know that cooking is not my thing. I know how to cook, but it's just like the laundry. It's a necessary thing that I don't mind doing, but so many other things are more interesting. Also, I'm not really into the big eating experience. All my life, I have eaten small amounts frequently. My mother said I was born that way and I never really grew out of it. What that means, is that I'm full before the appetizer is done. This causes problems sometimes because people/restaurants think I don't like their food because I'm not eating much of it.

So the questions this week are harder for me to answer than some other prompts have been. But read along, anyway, if you're interested.

1.What is/are your favorite meal(meals) to eat and to cook?

I'd say that my favorite meals are heavy on fresh vegetables. I like them prepared many ways, but the carnivores in the house like them best roasted, so we do that a lot. I like them that way, too, especially because they are easy to prepare. When I was growing up, we got to pick the supper menu on our birthday. I usually chose creamed chicken and biscuits. And when I got a little older, that was my favorite meal to make. 

2.How often do you cook at home and what kind of  meals do you make? 

We get take out once or twice a week, and eat in a restaurant once a month or so. The rest of the time we tend to make easy meals in large quantities so we can eat the leftovers for a couple of days. Big pots of stew and casseroles lend themselves to this. My husband is a fan of Costco chicken (big rotisserie chicken for $4.99), so he tends to buy those a lot.

3. When you go out to eat what foods do you find yourself ordering most?  

When we are in an actual restaurant, I tend to order salads or vegetarian entrees. The carnivores can get their big piece of meat and everyone is happy. And I have been known to be one of those people who eat the fries off of other's plates.

4. Can you recommend a restaurant in your area?  Why do you like it?

I'm not a foodie, so I'm just as happy with a Subway sandwich or a Domino's pizza (tomatoes and feta cheese) as anything else. 

Tuesday 4, Weddings

I'm almost a week late, but here are this/last week's Tuesday 4 prompts about weddings. Join me if you'd like. 

 1. If you are married would you share how your husband proposed to you? How long were you engaged before you got married? If you aren't married, what would be ideal for you?

There was no formal proposal. We talked about getting married several times and after a while decided to make it formal with an engagement. We were/are very practical people and the whole idea of a surprise proposal seemed strange. Wouldn't it be something you'd need to discuss? At length. However, I know that it is much more of a romantic gesture than anything else. And decades ago, it wasn't such a big thing when there wasn't social media to document everything. I'm don't remember exactly how long we were engaged before we got married--maybe 6 months. I was finishing up my thesis, then spent a couple of month's at my parents house planning the wedding.

2. Did you receive an engagement ring? Would you show us or describe it for us? Yes, I did receive an engagement ring. It is a simple brilliant cut diamond. The stone came from my husband's grandmother with the instructions that if we ever broke up, it had to come back to her. Fortunately, we've never had to make good on that promise. However, I did lose the ring once and was panicked about telling her. However, after several months I found it. If you want to read more about that and a ring Ward lost, you can read it here.

3. What kind of wedding did you have? Was it big or small, formal, informal, religious or justice of the peace. Inquiring minds want to know! Our wedding was in my small, home town church. It was a simple affair with only two attendants - one of my sisters and Ward's best friend. There were maybe 50-75 people there and the reception was in the basement of the new library with church friends making all of the food. It all went just as planned. However, I can't say that it was a comfortable day. I wasn't used to being the center of attention for such a long period of time and I found it tiring. 

4.Was there a honeymoon? Where did you go, how long did you stay? There really wasn't a honeymoon, so to speak. Ward was just a few months into a new job and didn't have any vacation time built up. His company gave him one personal day for the wedding. Time constraints was one of the reasons we got married the Friday after Thanksgiving instead of a more traditional Saturday. I also was starting a new job the next week, so the "honeymoon" was a long drive back to New Orleans from WV. We only drove a few hours the first night to a scenic spot, so I guess that was our honeymoon. But we've had plenty of time to travel since then.

When I reread this, by what you see these days, this was a very plain and simple affair, both the engagement and the wedding. But the wedding was, hands down, just right. Because we got married and eons later, we're still happily married. 

An Interesting Trip, Part 3

Here are a few more pictures from the genealogy trip that Ward and I took to Reading, PA. 

About halfway home we stopped at the Conowingo Dam. The large hydroelectric dam on the Lower Susquehanna River is the largest in the state of Maryland.

The dam's visitor center was guarded by this large eagle carved by a chainsaw.

And it was flanked by beautiful flowers.

But the real interest of the group was seeing
 how the dam worked--at least for Ward anyway.

This sign puzzled me at first because I wasn't sure what vultures would want with cars. A bit of research said that they can peck at the rubber from the sunroof and windshield wipers. 

And speaking of things that can do damage, I saw my first spotted lanternfly on this trip. This is the fly with the wings closed.

And this is the fly with the wings open. The lanternfly is native to China and was first found in the US in 2014 in Berks County, PA, which happens to be where Reading is. The fly can lay its eggs on anything, alive or not, which is one reason it is spreading quickly.
And why should we be concerned with the lantern fly? Because it already doing a lot of damage to fruit crops. and adapting quickly to many more plant species.

Well, that's it for this trip. Time to get ready for next weekend's family reunion.

Until next time...

An Interesting Trip, Part 2

 Ward and I recently went to Reading, PA, on a genealogy expedition for his family. The beginning of the trip was described in this post. Since I'm sure you found that post riveting, I will continue with our travels.

After piecing together a few more bits of information, we started our morning in the cemetery looking for a marker we hadn't found during our first visit. With some good map skills, we found what we were looking for.  (BTW, the cemetery is older than 1944. We're guessing that is when a new wall was built around it.)

We hoped to learn some local history by a visit to the Reading Public Museum. Unfortunately, it didn't open until later in the day. However, we did enjoy the park and arboretum around the museum. The park contains many sculptures including the one of the guitar player you see in front of the museum.

The group was fascinated by this sculpture as we tried to figure out the physics of how it was balanced.

There was also much discussion as to why deer hadn't eaten all of these hostas.

The paths through the arboretum followed along the Wyomissing Creek.

The ducks in the creek liked this protected area to search for food in the mud.

This statue was titled, Efflorescence II. In my simple mind, it looked like a giraffe.

This was also a subject for discussion. The conclusion was that it had
something to do with a dam that used to go across the creek.

I understood the name of this sculpture. It was simply titled, Bronze Root.

But I didn't quite get the meaning of the title for this work-Troy.

Soon we were on our way home. Next time, I'll show you some of the sights we saw along the way.

An Interesting Trip

Ward and I just returned from a trip to Reading, PA with his brother and wife. The purpose of the trip was to do some on-the-ground research about Ward's grandfather, Stanislaw, and his great-grandfather, Franz. Franz immigrated with his two brothers from Poland around 1910 to Reading, PA. However, both Stan and Franz died when their children were young, so there's not much family oral history. The results of this trip added several bits of information to the online records that have been found recently although there are still big questions to be answered. However, it was an interesting, productive, not to mention, fun trip. 

After 3 1/2 hour drive, our first stop was the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery which had served the Polish population. We found a few of the family markers we were looking for, but they were not the ones we were hoping to find--meaning Ward's grandparents and an uncle. We had an interesting time trying to say the multi-syllabic names and guessing the meaning of Polish words during our search.

We spent the next morning searching church records. They were often difficult to read both because of handwriting and because of the multiple ways names were spelled. Ward was excited when he found the baptism of his grandfather. This is an example of an easy-to-read record.

Next stop was the Berks County Genealogical Society. It was in this repurposed goggle factory. Today the former factory houses various art endeavors as well as the genealogy society. It was originally built in 1871 and was the first factory in the world to manufacture optical glass. This was one of a plethora of factories that were present in Reading around the turn of the last century. It's easy to understand why Reading would have been a popular destination for incoming immigrants.

After spending much of the day looking at records, we decided we needed a break. We then drove around to find various addresses where family members had lived. Along with several dwellings, we located St. Mary's Church where Ward's grandfather and many of his cousins were baptized. The church was locked, but a member of the church who lives across the street saw us taking pictures and let us in to see the inside. It was one of the grandest churches I have ever seen. 

We had seen this pagoda on a distant hill, and at the end of the day, we thought it would be fun to find it. The pagoda was built in 1908 as a hotel/restaurant for a planned resort. That didn't work out, so they gave it to the city of Reading. It was interesting to think about Ward's great-grandfather arriving in Reading and seeing the giant pagoda on the hill just like we did.

A little further up the hill from the pagoda was the William Penn fire tower.

This tower was built in 1939 to be used as
both a fire tower and a tourist attraction.

After a long day, we retired to the hotel where we tried to think about something other than Ward's family history so we could sleep. That was met with varying degrees of success but we were all up early the next day to do more exploring before we returned home.

Tune in next time for more Reading adventures. :)