Merry Christmas!

May this blessed holiday bring hope and passion for peace on Earth.

Room 38

Last night, Pat and I enjoyed dining with our great friends Heidi and Jack at Room 38 Restaurant & Lounge. It's new and we wanted to do our part to help launch the restaurant. Normally, none of us would have eaten last night, but we chose to take one for the team, considering the economy and all. Here's what we sampled (Excuse the pix, please. Dim lightening, cell phone, wine and shaky photographer):

A cranberry, spring greens, unidentifiable nut and sleepy white cheese salad (not pictured).

Some kind of tuna something or another. This was pretty good, but the fire wasn't quite hot enough. I like the edge to get crisp before the center is warm.

A hummus and egg plant gooo with chips. Pat whined that the egg plant was masked by the hummus. I consider that a chef victory.

A steak with bleu cheese. I give that a thumb and a half up. And a couple different flat breads. Flatbread is just a gourmet way of saying, "This is my one and only thought about what to do with all this leftover pizza dough." The cheese did not show up to the party on this one. On the not pictured flatbread, a zippier cheese diverted attention from the unfortunate absence of meat.

Bacon wrapped shrimp with jalapeno zing . I could have eaten my weight in these. Uhmmm Uhm!

Shoestring fries, untied. Delicately crisp, but too thick by Jack's standards. I think he's the only one of us that had standards for shoe string fries.

Sweet potato fries. Like the company, these were awesome.

Lobster mac and cheese. This was my favorite. In fact, it was so good I am not finishing this blog post. I am bolting to order more!

For dessert, we went back to our house, sat around the fireplace, sipped decaf Sumatra fair trade coffee and munched Liege waffles smeared with Galler Noir 85. Oooh, that stuff is awesome. Claire sent it to us from Belgium for Christmas. It's the 25th somewhere, isn't it?

O Tannenbaum

Rather than haul out the dozens of boxes of precious Christmas ornaments that Pat collected during our travels to national parks, presidential libraries, art galleries, museums, restaurants, blues joints and ice chalets across the USA and countries afar, this year Pat chose to put up only one Christmas tree, and then she decorated it by making bows and gingerbreads folks.



Mr. Bojangles performed an emergency amputation on this gingerbread guy. Several of his classmates are MIA.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Steamboat Springs

The greater family vacation for 2008 was taken with Grandma Wanda, Grandpa Fritz, Brent, Kelly, Hannah and Christian. We rented a big, fancy chateau across the Yampa River from Steamboat Springs with an awesome view of the mountains, town and valley. 

We went whitewater rafting on the icy Colorado River headwaters. Everyone, including Grandma Wanda. The weather was fantabulous and each turn of the river was a splendifourous vista. Brent, Grandma Wanda and I jumped off a 30 foot cliff into the freezing water. We thought it would be fun. In my opinion, the one second "wheeeee" exhilaration of the plunge was a feeble, forgettable trade for blue lips and four hours of shivering. Grandma Wanda jumped twice!

We went to a rodeo. There we ate BBQ ribs and chicken, and Grandma finished just out of the money in bareback bronco riding. She is still a champion in our book.

We also went to the annual Rocky Mountain Mustang car show. Grandma Wanda's sweet ride finished second in the street rod division.

We went day hiking on the Continental Divide Trail. Grandma Wanda did a straight through hike to Big Hole Pass, Montana.

Hanna, Christian and Claire cheering on Grandma Wanda as she summits Quarry Mountain.

Claire standing in front of the waterfall that Grandma Wanda kayaked down.

Tenured!

There are two types of research professors: tenured and wannabes. This past summer, a suspiciously clean and shiny new pink campus mail envelope from the university's provost office appeared in Pat's mail unceremoniously announcing the university's enthusiastic promotion of Pat to tenured associate professor of science education. 

Congratulations, Pat!

Below, Pat is pictured with her editorial assistant Rosie. 

Veggimania

It was our turn to bring the vegetable for our church dinner group. This is what Pat made--roasted vegetable medley maximus. She included 47 different types of vegetables, and prepared enough food to feed the group for a month.


From left to right, John, Kerry, Corey, Anna, Pat (featured chef), Andrew and Jessica. It is a fun group with one glaring exception. I am the token AARP qualifier. Aaaargh!

Claire News

Claire with her "it is the last day of high school" smile.

The last day at high school for Claire and her friends. Wooohooooo!

The Graduate.

The brain trust of the class of 2008.

Claire and Pat (Maman) on the big day.

Claire the scholar wisely eating an apple.

Claire the champion baker making Christmas cookies.


Claire competing at the Skills USA national commercial baking championship. 

She finished 8th!


Claire dashes off to prom.


Claire receiving an academic achievement award.

Claire playing musical chairs at a Springfield Cardinals game.

So what is Claire doing now? 

Visit Claire's Belgium Blog.

Pat and Claire's big adventure 08

Claire at Lamberts in Sikeston, MO, home of the throwed roll.

Claire hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

Pat hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

Claire dining in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

Claire enjoying the view in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

Pat and Claire at Biltmore.

Pat at Biltmore.

Claire at Biltmore.

The North Carolina Outer Banks beach.

The North Carolina Outer Banks evening sky before a gusher rain.

Pat and Claire at the North Carolina Outer Banks.

Pat with Sue, Carla and Leigh Ann in State College, PA.

Fishin 08

This is the first in an 11-post series of stuff and junk about 2008 that predates the advent of this blog. I am posting this information for all our devoted readers of "Deadwood" The Original Solstice Publication. That's right, the Deadwood is dead. Kaput! Over the past 23 years, the Deadwood has been affectionately named the Columbia Collutorium, Missouri Megalomania, The Missouri multum in parvo, The Missouri Mnemosyne, The Missouri Mithridate, The Missouri Mistryst, The Pennsylvania Paradiddle, The Pennsylvania Peripeteia, The Waverly Wodge, Wampish in Waverly, Wassailings from Waverly, Waltzing in Waverly, Wasselings from Waverly, Post-Wasselings from Waverly, Wailings from Waverly, Greetings from Deadwood and Merry Christmas. Yeah, the first two were titled Merry Christmas. Through all those name changes, two things have remained the same: it was delivered to bazillions of doorsteps free of charge, and the reporting was not restricted by the boundaries of facts. We are replacing the printed publication with this blog to free some trees for other senselessly devastating calamities, and so I don't have to lick all those durn envelopes. Please rest assured that the authors retain minimal commitment to the facts of our lives.

Like every year, we fished some, and sometimes we didn't fish. The latter is when work interrupted life. Pat skipped the trip, but Claire and I spent most of a week at the cabin on Stalker Lake with my brother, and my parents Fritz and Wanda. There, with my brother's deft guidance, we fished, and most importantly, we caught! A lot! My brother is a master angler, and he knows Stalker Lake like dogs know sniffing. It was a fabulous week of fishing and catching, lugging in monster northern pike, lunker walleye, ginormous largemouth bass, and baskets of panfish.

Here's a picture of Claire's first northern pike of the trip just before she released it.


Here's a picture of a northern pike I caught. Much thanks to my brother for help landing that man-eater. My, there sure is something about fishing that takes years off of my life.

Claire and I ready for canoeing around Stalker Lake. Claire took a two hour nap, resting her arms which were weary from hauling in fish, while I enjoyed the sun, lake and an invigorating afternoon of paddling.

Bony Bear!

When you wake up to the first fallen snow of winter, run outside and shout "BONY BEAR!" It will bring you luck, health, fame, fortune, friends or chocolate pie. You never know which and you can't go wrong, so give it a shot.  Bony Bear!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the meat eaters, one dead, cajun-spiced, roasted turkey.

For the vegetarians, Pat tackled puff pastry. Inside there is something that could probably be improved by adding real sausage and definitely some pepperoni.

And the table was set.

roasted turkey

mashed potatoes and gravy

chestnut and apple stuffing

barley and mushroom puff pastry pie

vegan shepherds' pie

sweet potatoes

Pat's purple ribbon double cranberry chutney in port wine

Indonesian rice salad with cashews and water chestnuts

spring greens with pecans, mandarin oranges and Asian dressing

roasted acorn squash with maple syrup

dinner rolls

oranges, apples, bananas and pears

apple cider

red and white wines

Julie's famous chocolate chip cookies

Debi's famous pumpkin cheese cake

Italian roast coffee

Dinner guests included Rachel, Marcelle, Debi, Julie, Matt and Sinan.

Here's to the national election results!

Bear Creek Trail after dinner--a futile, desperate attempt to walk off our over consumption.

The dishwasher worked overtime.

Leftovers anyone?