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Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

Ice Cream Favorites

Posted in Musings, tagged , , on July 29, 2010| 2 Comments »

Since July is National Ice Cream Month and technically it is still July, I decided to make today’s post about ice cream. In case you didn’t know it, ice cream is among my top 10 sweets I love and know I shouldn’t eat.

But when the weather is hot  and humid and I’m whiny and lazy, ice cream is a temptation just to delicious to ignore!

Way back when I was growing up on the family farm, the Schwan’s delivery man used to come by our house every two weeks. I thought he was a superhero! There was no mistaking his truck as it drove down our road, dust clouds swirling, letting us know he was on the way. My little head would fill with visions of all the wonderful frozen treats tucked inside his magic truck. He’d come to the door, take Mom’s order and then quickly return, arms laden with frozen canisters of pure delight.

As wrong as this is going to sound, Mom used to buy two or three of their big cans every time he came. They weren’t gallon size. They were even bigger. To my little 6-year-old head, they could have been 40 gallon drums. All I knew is that more ice cream had arrived! We would eat ice cream after lunch and if we were lucky, we might sneak in a frozen treat in the afternoon. Then in the evenings, when the work was done and dusk settled around us and the sky was brushed with streaks of pink, orange and gold as the sun dipped behind the hills, we’d whip out another bowl of ice cream. If we hadn’t worked (and played) so hard, we probably would have all weighed 300 pounds. As it was, I enjoyed it while it lasted. It gave us something fantastic to look forward to every day. We’d tried a lot of new and different flavors, but vanilla was definitely a staple.

Which is probably why vanilla remains my favorite flavor of ice cream. Boring? Yes. But with plain vanilla ice cream you get so many possibilities. You can add fruit or chocolate, nuts or candy pieces, tasty syrups and yummy toppings. You can smoosh it between two cookies, top brownies and dollop it on pie.

What is your favorite flavor? Do you have any ice cream memories from your childhood?

My absolute favorite flavor of vanilla ice cream comes from the Tillamook County Creamery Association. If you like vanilla, you will go loopy over their old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. It is a spoonful of amazing summer memories in every bite.

Eat some ice cream today and see if it doesn’t make you smile!

Enjoy!

Shanna

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Heat Wave

Posted in Musings, tagged on July 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“We’re having a heat wave,
A tropical heat wave,
The temperature’s rising,
It isn’t surprising…”

From Irving Berlin

Word of the Week: Heat Wave

heat wave

–noun

1.

an air mass of high temperature covering an extended area and moving relatively slowly.
2.

a period of abnormally hot and usually humid weather.
3.
a convenient excuse for lethargy, inactivity, downright laziness and indulging in ice cream
(I added that third one, I don’t know what Webster’s is thinking leaving it out!)
It is toasty warm here today, just like it was yesterday, and the day before. The breeze is hot, the air somewhat stifling and the sun beats down relentlessly.  Wow! Summer has finally arrived!
Since I’m able to mostly go from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned buildings, I am not feeling the pain that many others do when it is warm. For me, it is a great excuse to be lazy, sit next to the AC and eat ice cream. Yep, I turn into a complete and total slug when it gets this hot.
Hubby has had to fend for himself the last couple days because 1. I have no working stove or dishwasher and 2. It is just too hot to care. When he mentions food, I point toward the freezer and offer to share my ice cream, knowing he is not a fan of the cold, creamy confection.  His loss, my gain. Hah!
But my new stove is due to arrive today and then I will be forced to abandon my post by the AC and actually test it out.
Wish me luck,
The Slug

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Discombobulate

Posted in Musings, Travels, tagged , on July 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Can't we all use a little recombobulation from time to time?

Word of the Week: Discombobulate

dis·com·bob·u·late

[dis-kuhm-bob-yuh-leyt]

–verb (used with object), -lat·ed, -lat·ing.

to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate: The speaker was completely discombobulated by the hecklers.
I just returned from the first-ever Willow House conference and let me tell you, I’m plenty discombobulated. My head is filled to overflowing with information. But the nice folks at the Milwaukee airport tried to help all of us conference-dazed consultants out by offering a recombobulation area. I thought it was pretty nice of them to be so thoughtful.
Seriously, though, I loved this sign that hung just past the security check point in Milwaukee. What a fun way to give people a place to get their shoes back on, their belts back in place and their belongings gathered.
I think, maybe, I need a recombobulation area at home. Do you think Hubby would go for a sign like that hanging above my office door?

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Dinosaurs and Roses

Posted in Family, Musings, tagged , , on July 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Boy, those two things really go together well, don’t they? You should take that as a warning of the randomness of this post.

A few weeks ago, Hubby and I escaped  on vacation and so enjoyed it. You can read about the start to our fun trip here.

One of the places we stopped to visit had a prehistoric area filled with dinosaurs that actually moved and made sounds.

Hubby wasn’t going to let this big guy intimidate him at all.

I wasn’t getting that close to it. Nope, not me. I was too busy getting spit on by the nasty, sneaky little dinosaur that was hiding in the trees behind me. Other than being eaten alive or mauled to shreds, I guess you could say the experience was somewhat realistic. I noticed a few extremely frightened children who couldn’t get out of dino park fast enough.

There were honest to goodness real live animals in here, but don’t ask me what they were called. That information flew out of my head as I brushed dino spit off my shirt. And personally, they look more like dino toothpicks or appetizers than anything else

Once we were done having a great time in dino land, we ventured on down the road and came across a beautiful rose garden. I asked Hubby to take detailed notes because I want my yard to look exactly like that.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the acreage required to create a garden of this size. So I’d be happy to settle for some of the beautiful rose bushes.


And maybe a couple of these. I so want a lamppost adorned by blooming beauties.

I think I may have to find the name of this rose. I loved the deep magenta color. It was, as my young niece likes to say “gorgeous!”

This rose reminded me of a summer sunset. That could possibly be the name for all I know. Someone remind me to take photos of the name plates before I take a photo of the roses next time. Please?

After stomping through dino tracks and sniffing roses to my hearts content, my day was pretty well done.

More adventures later,

Shanna

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