Thoughts of LoWriter

How to Love the First Three Weeks of August

I haven't posted in awhile. I was busy having fun (for the most part), but I don't think that I've forgotten you all (all three of you!) or that I'm not sorry. I am very, very sorry to have neglected you!

The month started out with a trip up north to see my folks. I helped combine. I actually didn't do too much. I had the summer cold of doom, and it's pretty dusty, but they got the air conditioner fixed, so it was mostly OK. I wrote about it in an earlier entry about the list. Basically, I made an idiot out of myself at one point because apparently, in my head, I thought that "left" meant "right" when I was looking for the lever to dump the grain. Dad's friend was there, or it wouldn't have been so humiliating. They were both pretty nice about it. And I did manage to save the day by realizing that the combine was full before it ran over. All-in-all, it was a good time.

Then Ben and I went to Duluth. It was great fun (and very romantic if I do say so myself). We drove out across the lift bridge and wandered down to the beach to dip our toes in Lake Superior. We went to a couple antique stores (he collects things, and I am looking for a birthstone ring plus several sets of dishes for my mom for birthday/Christmas), which was delightful. (Yes, I've started my Christmas shopping already!) We went to the DeWitt-Seitz Market building to get me pressed pennies, knocking two machines off my list. We went out to eat at two places: Bellisio's (which is uber expensive, but tasty--I ordered an appetizer and it was just the right amount of food, but it was like $12). We went down to Grandma's and got one of their pressed pennies even though we didn't eat there. We went for a walk at sunset in the rose garden (Leif Erickson Park). We held hands and took pictures of roses and bunnies. Then my memory card stopped working because it sucked. We bought a new one, and Ben rescued my pictures from my non-functioning memory card using magic I do not quite understand (my hero!).

We went on a train ride on the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, which was super cute and fun. It was about an hour and a half, and it was really relaxing and very scenic. It's run by volunteers, which meant they were begging for money the whole time, but they were old and cute, so it was OK. We saw blue herons and turtles and so forth.

We also went to the Great Lakes Aquarium, which was rather lame, if I do say so myself. They don't appear to use their space very well, and it is generally a bunch of lake trout, which may be what an aquarium is supposed to be--examples of fish that live near where the aquarium is--but if so, what a waste! I was expecting more exotic species as well, especially because admission was $12.95 a piece (we got a two-for-one with a Happenings book). The highlight was the the Seahorse Secrets exhibit where we saw seahorses hugging and holding tails, which made Ben fall in love with them. It was extremely cute. I also got pennies from this location. One machine was broken, hence the updated rules for my penny machine quest: I do not have to pay admission twice to lame things if circumstances beyond my control prevent me from getting pennies from locations that have multiple machines. I also got pressed pennies from the Vista Fleet, though we did not take a tour (you can't do everything in one trip). In addition, we went to Fitger's Brewery where I enjoyed an apricot wheat beer and a delightful oatmeal stout.

On the whole, it was an excellent trip! We had a couple of things we couldn't get done, but we are planning to take a drive to Gooseberry Falls for the day once the fall colors are out (where I will get another pressed penny because Ben supports my habit).

Then, last weekend, I went up north again and visited my folks a second time. I helped my mom mostly this time. We froze corn (which is not as hard as it seems), made pickles (which is harder when you have to pick and wash the cucumbers than it seems when you don't), and made choke cherry jelly (which is good but a lot of trouble to make). Basically, to freez corn, you pick it, husk it, and boil enough water for all (or most) of it (in our case, four kettles for the first batch, two more for the second). Scrub out both sides of your sink, and once the water is boiling, throw the corn in. Boil it for four minutes, and then plug the sink and put the corn in the sink using tongs. Run cold water over it and add ice (my mom froze water in cool-whip bowls). If the water feels luke warm, drain the sink, and run more cold water in. Let it sit for, oh, probably between 20 minutes to a half hour. Cut the corn off the cobs, measure as many cups into freezer or sandwhich bags as you want, get all the air out of the bags, seal, and freeze. It's not as hard as I thought.

Pickles are easy except that you have to pick and then wash all those itty bitty cucumbers... boo! Choke cherry jelly is a hell of a lot of work. You have to pick them (which my mom and my sister did before I came home), boil them, juice them (which is difficut considering they're about the size of a pencil eraser and are mostly pit), strain out the pits and fruit bits (with a cheesecloth), boil the juice (adding more sugar than juice, actually), pour the mixture into the jars, wipe the jars tops so the lids will seal, put (boiled) lids on the jars, and then boil the jars so that they'll seal. On the plus side, everything sealed, so that was nice, and now I have choke cherry jelly. While choke cherries may live up to their name, the jelly is fantastic, mostly probably because it is 9 cups of sugar to 7 cups of choke cherry juice. My parents fought the whole time, but this is not news. I left them arguing over a bag of hawthorne apples that my dad thought "someone" (AKA Mom) should make into jelly, too.

We also made fried green tomatoes, which was something I'd never tried but figured couldn't be that hard. We used the same trick we use for frying zucchini (mix two eggs with salt and pepper, dip in a slice, salt one side, dip the slice in food-processed crackers, and fry). Ben and I made them earlier this week, too. They were pretty good. They weren't as good as Bellisio's, but I am not a gourmet chef, and I did not have any polenta or garlic cream sauce. They are zingy, and I love them.

I also got to celebrate Jill's b-day with Carl and Jill by seeing Stardust, which I thought was a very fun movie. Keep in mind that I have never read the book, and I also went in with an expectation that it would be horrible. These two things may have colored my experience more positive than others'.

So, as you can see, it has been quite a full month, and I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at home until my parents come with my sister in tow to start up college once again on Sunday (after which, l won't have a moment's peace until Christmas when she goes back again). Then there will be State Fair and further antics, I'm sure. I'll be sure to share! Feel free to tell me what you all did on your summer vacations!

Posted by LoWriter at August 23, 2007 08:00 PM