Independence Day and Sour Krauts
Happy 4th, ye blogge faithfulle, who haven't given up on us even though we've been slacking for the last couple of days.
It's a rainy day here in Iowa City, and we're pursuing independent projects for a while this afternoon. Bob is in the kitchen watching the Yankees pile up runs against the Orioles in the bottom of the 1st. (This after proclaiming that he'd be "happy to watch the Yankees lose" when we were choosing which of three MLB games to watch. He might have to change the station pretty soon.) Colleen is on a couch in the living room with a book. Dennis is in our little office/den with me trying to print something out from his computer, while I sit at this desk typing away in our little blog. He will soon be escaping to the shop, though, to immerse himself in building the drawers for our nightstands. At around 5, we will be heading to a big 4th of July soiree at the home of one of our directors this season, Mark Hunter. (More on that event in tomorrow's entry.)
Yesterday we visited the Amana Colonies, a cluster of Mennonite communities about 20 miles west of Iowa City. They offer lovely buffet-style champagne brunches in a few of their many restaurants, plus bakeries, wineries, museums, and a plethora of crafts shops and antiques stores. Unfortunately, the heavens opened as we drove out there, and we wound up arriving in the rain. By the time we found a restaurant that offered anything Dennis and I could eat and sat for a leisurely and indulgent breakfast of omelettes, pastries, biscuits, rhubarb pie, and whatever else you can imagine, the weather had cleared, and we enjoyed a nice walk through the area where there was the most shopping to be had.
(An anecdote mainly for my father's sake: We brunched at "Zuber's Restaurant," named for Bill Zuber, a local kid turned New York Yankee. The front lounge in the place is nicknamed 'the dugout,' and boasts some pictures of Zuber in his heyday and a few copies of a Zuber biography for sale.)
In one store, Colleen and Bob saw a little plaque that read something like: "What do you call a cranky German? A sour kraut." A few shops later, Colleen ran into one of these sour krauts, when she inquired of a woman behind the counter, "Do you have any books for children that tell the history of the Amish?" and was sharply remanded: "FIRST of all, this is a GERMAN community..." and so on. Only later did Colleen realize that she should have invoked the 'sour kraut' joke in response to this meany.
At some point in the writing of this post, 3 of the 4 of us convened in the kitchen, where I am now typing at the table, Colleen is writing postcards home across from me, and Bob has indeed changed the channel, so we are now watching the Mets face the Nationals in D.C.
Hope everyone has a nice day off/fireworks/BBQ or whatever else you might be doing this 4th!
It's a rainy day here in Iowa City, and we're pursuing independent projects for a while this afternoon. Bob is in the kitchen watching the Yankees pile up runs against the Orioles in the bottom of the 1st. (This after proclaiming that he'd be "happy to watch the Yankees lose" when we were choosing which of three MLB games to watch. He might have to change the station pretty soon.) Colleen is on a couch in the living room with a book. Dennis is in our little office/den with me trying to print something out from his computer, while I sit at this desk typing away in our little blog. He will soon be escaping to the shop, though, to immerse himself in building the drawers for our nightstands. At around 5, we will be heading to a big 4th of July soiree at the home of one of our directors this season, Mark Hunter. (More on that event in tomorrow's entry.)
Yesterday we visited the Amana Colonies, a cluster of Mennonite communities about 20 miles west of Iowa City. They offer lovely buffet-style champagne brunches in a few of their many restaurants, plus bakeries, wineries, museums, and a plethora of crafts shops and antiques stores. Unfortunately, the heavens opened as we drove out there, and we wound up arriving in the rain. By the time we found a restaurant that offered anything Dennis and I could eat and sat for a leisurely and indulgent breakfast of omelettes, pastries, biscuits, rhubarb pie, and whatever else you can imagine, the weather had cleared, and we enjoyed a nice walk through the area where there was the most shopping to be had.
(An anecdote mainly for my father's sake: We brunched at "Zuber's Restaurant," named for Bill Zuber, a local kid turned New York Yankee. The front lounge in the place is nicknamed 'the dugout,' and boasts some pictures of Zuber in his heyday and a few copies of a Zuber biography for sale.)
In one store, Colleen and Bob saw a little plaque that read something like: "What do you call a cranky German? A sour kraut." A few shops later, Colleen ran into one of these sour krauts, when she inquired of a woman behind the counter, "Do you have any books for children that tell the history of the Amish?" and was sharply remanded: "FIRST of all, this is a GERMAN community..." and so on. Only later did Colleen realize that she should have invoked the 'sour kraut' joke in response to this meany.
At some point in the writing of this post, 3 of the 4 of us convened in the kitchen, where I am now typing at the table, Colleen is writing postcards home across from me, and Bob has indeed changed the channel, so we are now watching the Mets face the Nationals in D.C.
Hope everyone has a nice day off/fireworks/BBQ or whatever else you might be doing this 4th!
posted by LW | 10:33 AM
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