Posts from the ‘Misc’ category

Iowa workday #2

The wind stopped and the clouds came back this morning. I am not complaining as the returning clouds made for a most glorious sunrise that Karl and I watched as we finished our morning walk.

Sunrise

Sunrise

In between fighting my fledgling knowledge of C# (C-Sharp – programming language) I tried out a new electric kettle…

Electric Kettle

I went hunting for a small crock pot yesterday and came home with this. It reportedly slow cooks, steams, deep frys and ??? – I guess anything else you need a medium large pot to do. So far it has dealt with one of those pasta-chicken-veg meals in a bag and today it was home to the makings for Italian Beef Sandwiches. About 3:30 after no lunch and living in close quarters with the smell of roast beef, italian sausage, green peppers and au jus on the simmer, I succumbed…

Sandwich

I think I’ll make it through the rest of the work day…

…but it did break my heart to make this without Bill – one step forward, two backward or something like that…

Rainy afternoon

Yesterday was rainy, blustery, cold and generally felt more like November than April. The wallpaper stripping was tackled by Rick who decided it was easier on his own…darn…

Jeannine and I had work of our own, but by mid-afternoon had had enough and gathered at the dining table to make some bead earrings. I’ve been with Jeannine when she buys beads but I didn’t really know how they went together.

Beading

Beading

Earrings

The finished earrings…the blue and ruby on the left are mine!…I picked the beads, Jeannine put them together.

I sat, sipped wine, made encouraging noises and watched the rain and the wind.

Gazebo View

Looking out the gazebo…

Sunroom

The sunroom – cozy on a rainy day and perfect place for morning coffee. Karl has joined us on occasion – having his morning treats on the rug.

Goodbye Canada Dry

I was born and raised in northwest Ohio – not too far from where I am currently “parked” in the Winnebago. In this area, the “local” ginger ale is Vernors.

A little history, courtesy of Wikipedia:

In 1862, James Vernor was called off to the American Civil War. According to legend, he left a mixture of ginger, vanilla and spices sitting in an oak cask in a pharmacy he had been working in. After returning from battle four years later, he opened the keg and found the drink inside had been changed by the aging process in the wood. It was like nothing else he had ever tasted, and he purportedly declared it “Deliciously different,” which remains the drink’s motto to this day. Its current slogan is “Barrel Aged, Bold Taste!™”.

Vernors is a golden ginger ale with a pungent flavor, more like a ginger beer. This style was common before Prohibition when the less flavorful pale ginger ale became popular as an alcoholic mixer. While Michiganders who grew up with it tend to like it, many other Americans are suspicious of it, as it doesn’t taste like a “typical” ginger ale.

As I’ve moved around the U.S., there are some areas that carry Vernors and some that don’t. After the advent of the internet and the availability of nearly everything online – for a price, of course, I even had the stuff shipped to me at what worked out to $1 per 12 ounce can. Thankfully, my favorite grocery in Montana now carries Vernors, although only in 6 packs…still better than the shipping scenario!

In Florida, sometimes the grocery had it and sometimes they didn’t. Towards the end, I bought – GASP! – Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Canada Dry is nothing like Vernors but it was as close as I could come. Nearly the first thing I did when I arrived in Ohio was acquire a bit of Vernors…

Vernors

This is only one trip – I made 3 trips…I have as much Vernors as I can find room for in the motorhome.

Vernors

This storage area under the dinette seat is now full to the brim with Vernors…oh, and a bit of wine…

Now, when I brought back the first load of Vernors, I still had about 18 cans of Canada Dry left. Bleah! – still – I MADE myself drink the Canada Dry before I could have my first Vernors.

Canada Dry

The last Canada Dry…

Vernors

First Vernors!!! – in celebratory style…

Although the Vernors is stowed and I had planned to roll west yesterday afternoon, the weather did not cooperate. A storm the Weather Channel called “The Big Storm” was just west of Ohio and although I don’t think it will be as bad here as it was in TX, OK and the middle U.S., it is enough to keep me parked. The current plan is to sit here and work through the weekend and roll on Monday morning.

The downside to this plan is that Jeannine and Rick are stripping wallpaper this weekend. I offered to do the cooking (vs helping with the wallpaper). This offer was met with some skepticism as they know I love to cook. I’m not sure how it will all work out…

Summers in Somers

Somers, MT is located on the northwest corner of Flathead Lake in Flathead County, Montana.  Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.  I had not even heard of it before coming to Northwest Montana. 

Flathead Lake is beautiful – surrounded by mountains, longer north to south than it is wide east to west.  It is not really developed on its shores which is nice.  There is, however, plenty of public access and much of that via state parks that are wooded and very natural.  I grew up on Lake Erie which is not the most beautiful of the Great Lakes – but I did learn to sail on that lake and on the Maumee River in Ohio.  But I’ve sailed on Flathead Lake and it is incredible – the vistas, the water, the wind and the waves – big lake sailing at its best.

Late this summer on a not too smoky day, I took Karl to Lakeside, MT which is across Somers Bay from Somers, MT and took these photos.  Somers is home to a nice little marina – I’ve sailed from there and also from Dayton, MT which is further south along the west shore of the lake.  But Somers is a bit unique – itty-bitty town mostly on a hill overlooking the lake.  It reminds me of parts of San Francisco in that the houses are small footprint houses that step up the hill with beautiful vistas of the water.

Somers Bay

Tower

Sailboats

Karl

Calendar

I had some downtime today as I was waiting for software downloads to download…and found the new calendar thing that is on the right.  Technically, the calendar in blog-speak is a “widget” – that’s just fun!!  But, I think it’s pretty cool – the dates that have posts are bold and if you put your cursor on the bold date, the title of the post should appear.  The other blog-speak thing is that the calendar is in the “sidebar”.

Boy, half the battle with computers – hardware – software is learning the lingo – cookies, widgets, sidebars, headers – and acronyms…  Widgets, though – that’s my current favorite!