Del did his lecture with John Luban's class today, and his wife Cheryl, also a librarian, gave me a walking tour of the Old City and Central City. She is new here, but you would not have known it. We walked and walked, and everywhere we looked there was something beautiful to see. Tomorrow, Del and I plan to take a bus tour so he can see as much as possible in a short amount of time. Then, off to the opera.
More on the visit after we get home. I'm sleepy.
41 years ago today, David Williams finally decided to enter the world at Ft. Hood. The time has flown by. (Except, as I always say, for 7th grade, which seemed to last forever. 7th grade boys have no sense of humor.) And despite his raising, he is a man to be proud of. Wish you could all see him with Rosa. What a great dad.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Day 38 Riga, Part One
Here we are in Riga after a 4 hour ride in a big van. It had one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other - about 24 in all, and all full with luggage down the aisle. We got to the autobus stotis early, so our little bags were stowed away in the back compartment. We stopped at two little cities to pick up people and for bathroom stops and then at the Riga airport before arriving at the bus station. All but four of us were headed for the Riga airport. It is much cheaper and more direct to fly from there than from Palanga. The trip was uneventful. I read, listened to Lithuanian on my MP3 player and napped. I took a picture of the border guard who came in to check passports as we crossed from Lithuania to Latvia, after he got off the bus and was standing by the side of the road, of course. The Lithuanian ladies seated around me looked at me and laughed. Maybe I should have rethought that, but he didn't arrest me, so I guess it was okay.
You pay one lita to use the facilities in the stations, by the way. I remember that when I was a child, you had to put a dime in a slot in the stall door to use the bathroom in Thalhaimers (sp) and Miller and Rhodes in Richmond., but in Lithuania you give the money to an attendent.
John and Cheryl Lubans met us at the station, and we walked a couple of blocks to our hotel. It is located in Old Town, and you will love seeing all the wonderful streets and buildings. I brought all but one piece of what I need to upload pix, so you will have to wait until we get home to see them. Home meaning Klaipeda. The hotel is quite a pleasant place. Our room is small, but spotless and comfortable. The bed linens are so white they seem to shine, are as smooth as silk and must have a huge number thread count. I have not minded using rough dried towels in Lithuania. They give a loofa effect, as I have said, but deliver me from rough dried sheets!
The four of us had dinner at a nearby little restaurant that was just charming, and the food was wonderfu.. I had chanterelle rissoto with chicken and Del had rissoto with salmon. We took pictures of the lovely presentation.
Off to bed. More tomorrow. It is almost the 4th over here. Tomorrow was a busy day 41 years ago.
You pay one lita to use the facilities in the stations, by the way. I remember that when I was a child, you had to put a dime in a slot in the stall door to use the bathroom in Thalhaimers (sp) and Miller and Rhodes in Richmond., but in Lithuania you give the money to an attendent.
John and Cheryl Lubans met us at the station, and we walked a couple of blocks to our hotel. It is located in Old Town, and you will love seeing all the wonderful streets and buildings. I brought all but one piece of what I need to upload pix, so you will have to wait until we get home to see them. Home meaning Klaipeda. The hotel is quite a pleasant place. Our room is small, but spotless and comfortable. The bed linens are so white they seem to shine, are as smooth as silk and must have a huge number thread count. I have not minded using rough dried towels in Lithuania. They give a loofa effect, as I have said, but deliver me from rough dried sheets!
The four of us had dinner at a nearby little restaurant that was just charming, and the food was wonderfu.. I had chanterelle rissoto with chicken and Del had rissoto with salmon. We took pictures of the lovely presentation.
Off to bed. More tomorrow. It is almost the 4th over here. Tomorrow was a busy day 41 years ago.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Day 37 Off to Riga, Latvia Tomorrow
Today was teaching day for me. I'm still a little worried about the beginning class, but think the advanced class is begining to seem a little more natural. Today we worked on past tenses, reviewing regular and introducing irregular. Somehow, the distinctions between could/would, should/must, may/can, etc., came up and by the time I was finished trying to explain, I was in a sweat. Don't bother to tell me that Southern Ladies glow, this one probaly isn't a lady, and teaching English makes her sweat. It's my own fault. I should be more careful or, actually, must be more careful in choosing my words in the future. We also practiced sentences with vowel /r/ words. The varied spellings of such words make it so difficult. (work, hurt, urge, bird, etc.)
During the prepared conversation part of our class, I related the story of eating zeppelins and how I enjoyed them, but that they were huge. Daiva told the class that at the restaurant where we ate, the zeppelins were really quite small. I asked her if the large ones were the size of bed pillows. She laughed and said that she had noticed that I looked like I needed a bed pillow by the time I finished eating them. It is such fun to see the smiles people get when we say we tried zeppelins and that we liked them. It reminds me of Del and his boiled peanuts that he tries to feed unsuspecting Yankees. I think they taste like blackeyed peas, by the way. I've probably already bored most of you with the story of the Robinson family and boiled peanuts, but that never stopped me before. We grew peanuts on the farm, and shortly after we started dating, Del came down during cultivating time. That means harvest, and I think the word is used because the piece of machinery used to get them up was called a cultivator. He asked if he could buy some of the green peanuts to take home to his parents. The family was clearly concerned about what to do. On the one hand, there was a history of old maids in the Robinson family, and he was the only prospect they saw on the horizon. It would not do to appear inhospitable. On the other hand, it was a well known fact that eating green (freshly harvested) peanuts would give you " the ACUTE (emphasis on A) colic and and you would surely DIE." The exact same words and intonation were always used. They came down on the side of giving Del the peanuts, but only if he would agree to tell his parents of the danger. The only other thing I know of that will give you the ACUTE colic and surely kill you is eating watermelon and drinking "cocola" together. Big Bubba (uncle) told us that from the time I can remember. Del laughs, but his mother was the one who believed swallowing chewing gum would give you appendecitis.
All that has reminded me of the old habit of putting salted peanuts into a bottle of "cocola" and drinking them. I haven't tried that in a hundred years, but the combination of sweet and salty and crunchy was really good. I'm not sure it would be the same without those little bottles, though.
Del left to attend a ceremony at the archives honoring a Lithuanian turned Chicagoan before I was to get home from class, so I stopped in at a restaurant near the bus stop for a bowl of soup. I ordered what they called pea stew, assuming it would be a thick brothy type deal. It came in a bowl and was so thick the spoon could stand up in it. The peas had been cooked to death, (that's not always a bad thing) as Mother used to say, or else someone had been after them with a potato masher until quite smooth, but they were mixed with barley to give texture, I guess. They had sprinkled bacon and what I think were little half circles of raw leek on top. It was really good. I'm not sure Del would have enjoyed it as much as I did, however. You had a tiny taste of bacon with each spoonful. I happened to have my new Lithuanian cookbook with me and saw a recipe called pea gruel and one called barley gruel that seemed as though they might have been combined to make this dish. The server looked at the book and agreed. My idea of gruel has always been a thin runny sort of thing fed to orphans in old timey days, but maybe that was not correct.
Tomorrow we take the bus to Riga. I'll tell you all about the trip when we get back on Sunday. Since I may not have access to a computer on the 4th, I'll say Happy Birthday to our baby boy today. What a great guy he turned out to be and what a wonderful family he brought us! We are blessed.
Have a great week end.
During the prepared conversation part of our class, I related the story of eating zeppelins and how I enjoyed them, but that they were huge. Daiva told the class that at the restaurant where we ate, the zeppelins were really quite small. I asked her if the large ones were the size of bed pillows. She laughed and said that she had noticed that I looked like I needed a bed pillow by the time I finished eating them. It is such fun to see the smiles people get when we say we tried zeppelins and that we liked them. It reminds me of Del and his boiled peanuts that he tries to feed unsuspecting Yankees. I think they taste like blackeyed peas, by the way. I've probably already bored most of you with the story of the Robinson family and boiled peanuts, but that never stopped me before. We grew peanuts on the farm, and shortly after we started dating, Del came down during cultivating time. That means harvest, and I think the word is used because the piece of machinery used to get them up was called a cultivator. He asked if he could buy some of the green peanuts to take home to his parents. The family was clearly concerned about what to do. On the one hand, there was a history of old maids in the Robinson family, and he was the only prospect they saw on the horizon. It would not do to appear inhospitable. On the other hand, it was a well known fact that eating green (freshly harvested) peanuts would give you " the ACUTE (emphasis on A) colic and and you would surely DIE." The exact same words and intonation were always used. They came down on the side of giving Del the peanuts, but only if he would agree to tell his parents of the danger. The only other thing I know of that will give you the ACUTE colic and surely kill you is eating watermelon and drinking "cocola" together. Big Bubba (uncle) told us that from the time I can remember. Del laughs, but his mother was the one who believed swallowing chewing gum would give you appendecitis.
All that has reminded me of the old habit of putting salted peanuts into a bottle of "cocola" and drinking them. I haven't tried that in a hundred years, but the combination of sweet and salty and crunchy was really good. I'm not sure it would be the same without those little bottles, though.
Del left to attend a ceremony at the archives honoring a Lithuanian turned Chicagoan before I was to get home from class, so I stopped in at a restaurant near the bus stop for a bowl of soup. I ordered what they called pea stew, assuming it would be a thick brothy type deal. It came in a bowl and was so thick the spoon could stand up in it. The peas had been cooked to death, (that's not always a bad thing) as Mother used to say, or else someone had been after them with a potato masher until quite smooth, but they were mixed with barley to give texture, I guess. They had sprinkled bacon and what I think were little half circles of raw leek on top. It was really good. I'm not sure Del would have enjoyed it as much as I did, however. You had a tiny taste of bacon with each spoonful. I happened to have my new Lithuanian cookbook with me and saw a recipe called pea gruel and one called barley gruel that seemed as though they might have been combined to make this dish. The server looked at the book and agreed. My idea of gruel has always been a thin runny sort of thing fed to orphans in old timey days, but maybe that was not correct.
Tomorrow we take the bus to Riga. I'll tell you all about the trip when we get back on Sunday. Since I may not have access to a computer on the 4th, I'll say Happy Birthday to our baby boy today. What a great guy he turned out to be and what a wonderful family he brought us! We are blessed.
Have a great week end.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Day 36 All Together now, We're Having A Heat Wave...
Today was a gorgeous day! It got up to 32 degrees F with 29 degrees wind chill and the sun was shining. I should have put on my sunglasses. This was the first day since we got here that I wore something other than my full length down coat, and it felt great. We had Lithuanian class at 3:30 and started out early to buy our monthly bus passes and go the the bank. You will find it hard to believe, but the delicate flower was willing to walk one extra bus stop further before getting on the bus and to get off one stop early. I know that when we moved to Illinois from Chapel Hill, someone told us that one day it would warm up to 30 degrees or so and we would feel like opening the necks of our jackets and undoing our mufflers. We thought they were nuts, just as we thought they were when they talked about the finer points of shoveling roofs, but who knew? They were right. And people with flat roofs did shovel them that winter. It was a wonderful day.
Lithuanian class really got down to business today. We learned the words for sale, discount, how much and what is the price, as well as some other words that will probably not be as useful as the first ones I mentioned. We also learned to count money. I thought I was pretty smart, counting mine silently in English and then just translating the total (1,340.53 Lt.). Seems the teacher wanted to "see my work" Remember that phrase? She had me count out each bill and coin in Lithuanian. Keeping a running total in my pea brain is hard enough without having to do that while remembering how to say the words. My written homework was pretty good today. Don't ask how long it took me. It reminds me of Latin, all those years ago. Doing written sentences at home is easier than producing them on demand in class, of course.
In one of the Anne of Green Gables books I've been reading here, Anne speaks of words as being built. I never thought of it that way, but it's true, isn't it? I have really enjoyed reading some old favorites since we got here. Does anyone have any suggestions of oldies but goodies?
There is a big beginning of spring festival here on Sunday, but we will miss at least most of it because we'll be on the bus coming home from Latvia. The festival sounds like a combination Mardi Gras, Halloween and perhaps Guy Falkes (sp?) day, because they burn a straw figure, wear masks through the streets and children knock on doors to ask for money. They used to ask for candy, but now they want money. It's also a day for eating pancakes. We'll have fun in Latvia, but, I always want it all.
Lithuanian class really got down to business today. We learned the words for sale, discount, how much and what is the price, as well as some other words that will probably not be as useful as the first ones I mentioned. We also learned to count money. I thought I was pretty smart, counting mine silently in English and then just translating the total (1,340.53 Lt.). Seems the teacher wanted to "see my work" Remember that phrase? She had me count out each bill and coin in Lithuanian. Keeping a running total in my pea brain is hard enough without having to do that while remembering how to say the words. My written homework was pretty good today. Don't ask how long it took me. It reminds me of Latin, all those years ago. Doing written sentences at home is easier than producing them on demand in class, of course.
In one of the Anne of Green Gables books I've been reading here, Anne speaks of words as being built. I never thought of it that way, but it's true, isn't it? I have really enjoyed reading some old favorites since we got here. Does anyone have any suggestions of oldies but goodies?
There is a big beginning of spring festival here on Sunday, but we will miss at least most of it because we'll be on the bus coming home from Latvia. The festival sounds like a combination Mardi Gras, Halloween and perhaps Guy Falkes (sp?) day, because they burn a straw figure, wear masks through the streets and children knock on doors to ask for money. They used to ask for candy, but now they want money. It's also a day for eating pancakes. We'll have fun in Latvia, but, I always want it all.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Day 35 I Love Wikipedia and Google and Swag Bucks!
I really do not know what Del and I would do anymore if we were unable to find out most anything, even the most trivial things, or maybe especially the most trivial things, in only a few seconds. We can hardly watch tv or read without searching for something online. In fact, at home, we most often watch in our recliners with lap boards across our laps so the computers have a place to sit. Del is often working, but since I retired, I'm just at the ready for a search. Yesterday during breakfast, we read that Duke Snyder died, so I looked him up. That led to my commenting, just randomly, that I had always liked listening to PeeWee Reese and Dizzy Dean, which led to my looking them up. That led to my reading that PeeWee Reese, a Kentuckian, had been a strong supporter of Jackie Robinson, which led me to read all about them both. That led me to a book called TEAMMATES about the 2 men that is used to foster understanding of race relations among school students. It isn't on Kindle, but I plan to read it when we get home. Teachers might want to check it out, if you aren't already familiar with it. Yes, now that we are dependent upon online news, we treat our computers as though they were newspapers and read them at breakfast- added benefit - no ink smudges. At least we don't eat in shifts as we did on week days before we retired, so this is an improvement. And just as when I read the newspaper, I feel the need to read anything I find interesting to Del. After all, he might skip over something.
Watching shows or movies on tv almost always makes us go on a search for who some actor is. One of us will ask and the other will say that he/she was in that movie with so and so, so we look up so and so, figure out which movie it was and that leads us to the name we were looking for. I generally also say that it starts with __ or some other letter.
Such a long way from the World Book Encyclopedia. We got ours when I was in 4th grade, I think. I wish I could remember the name of the lady who came to the house to sell them. I do remember that they were quite a serious investment for our family. We bought them on the installment plan, and one volume arrived each month until we had the complete set. You could also buy an update each year, but I'm pretty sure we never did. I remember that the teacher I had that year used to always ask the people who owned encyclopedia to raise their hands. Seems a thoughtless thing to do. When David got into school, our resident librarian suggested we get a cheap used set so that if a teacher asked, he could raise his hand, and then we would take him to the library to use current information. I don't recall if it ever came up.
Del spoke to the local school librarians, today. I stayede home and made potato soup. During the coffee time afterward, the subject of my Kindle came up. I have used it in my English classes and Daiva brought it up. They have asked for a demonstration when he meets with the public librarians in late March. Since he has never had his hands on EHJ, he suggested that I should come to do the demonstration. Hey, I offered to buy him one for Christmas, but he declined. I did not offer to share mine with him!
Leslie Sansone and I spent some quality time together again today. I did the 2 mile walk, using 2 large cans of tomatoes as weights, again today, but plan to do 3 tomorrow. I really like her DVD.
It got up to 30 today, with a wind chill of 23, so it won't be long before we get out to walk and explore more. I love that the days are getting longer.
Sorry about the awful weather, Ohio people. How many days will you have to make up at the end of the year, teachers?
As you can see, nothing much happened in my world today, so you got to listen to me ramble on.
Watching shows or movies on tv almost always makes us go on a search for who some actor is. One of us will ask and the other will say that he/she was in that movie with so and so, so we look up so and so, figure out which movie it was and that leads us to the name we were looking for. I generally also say that it starts with __ or some other letter.
Such a long way from the World Book Encyclopedia. We got ours when I was in 4th grade, I think. I wish I could remember the name of the lady who came to the house to sell them. I do remember that they were quite a serious investment for our family. We bought them on the installment plan, and one volume arrived each month until we had the complete set. You could also buy an update each year, but I'm pretty sure we never did. I remember that the teacher I had that year used to always ask the people who owned encyclopedia to raise their hands. Seems a thoughtless thing to do. When David got into school, our resident librarian suggested we get a cheap used set so that if a teacher asked, he could raise his hand, and then we would take him to the library to use current information. I don't recall if it ever came up.
Del spoke to the local school librarians, today. I stayede home and made potato soup. During the coffee time afterward, the subject of my Kindle came up. I have used it in my English classes and Daiva brought it up. They have asked for a demonstration when he meets with the public librarians in late March. Since he has never had his hands on EHJ, he suggested that I should come to do the demonstration. Hey, I offered to buy him one for Christmas, but he declined. I did not offer to share mine with him!
Leslie Sansone and I spent some quality time together again today. I did the 2 mile walk, using 2 large cans of tomatoes as weights, again today, but plan to do 3 tomorrow. I really like her DVD.
It got up to 30 today, with a wind chill of 23, so it won't be long before we get out to walk and explore more. I love that the days are getting longer.
Sorry about the awful weather, Ohio people. How many days will you have to make up at the end of the year, teachers?
As you can see, nothing much happened in my world today, so you got to listen to me ramble on.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Day 34 Yummy Salads - Huge Salads
https://picasaweb.google.com/118279613107347865536/Church?authkey=Gv1sRgCNyC9oqAmPH-Qw
We spent the morning doing what needed to be done, laundry, school work, etc. Del worked on on tomorrows presentation to school librarians. Then for lunch, I made huge salads from those mixed salad greens in the plastic shells, beets, onions, cucumber, a little mould cheese (love that translation) and oil and red wine vinegar. Yesterday was the first time I had seen anything other than the occasional baby leaf lettuce in the markets, and I was so excited. It was like eating spring. I also cooked a few slices of the sausage from the bacon man at the Old Market. It was okay, but I don't know that it was what I expected - very salty and almost too smoky. It made me wonder if there was artificial smoke flavor in it. You wouldn't have thought you could get meat too salty for the Va. ham woman, would you? I'm glad I only bought a small piece. I was not sure whether it needed to be cooked. The man had offered me a taste in the store, but he also offered me a taste of bacon, and I know that was raw.
We left for church early today, because it was our turn to set up and take down the chairs, get out the hymnals, heat the water for tea and wash up after. It really isn't that big a deal, because just about everyone puts his/her own chair away. The pictures, not really good ones, are of the podium and cross from the church. They are made from driftwood, which is fitting since this is a sea community. After we were done, we went to dinner at the Thai restaurant with a couple from Texas and our neighbor from Goshen, Indiana. I had a curried fish dish, and Del had calamari in a hot, hot. hot red chili sauce. Both were quite good, and more what we had expected than the Pad Thai I had the other week.
Home to Skype the kids. Rosa was reading and swinging in the back yard, and David was sitting on the deck doing some work. Tracy is just getting over a cold. We got to see Rosa jumping rope, or as the kids at Tallmadge Primary said, jump roping. She has been studying Egypt in Target class, so the three of them went to an exhibit as Emory this weekend.
Tomorrow I will try to beat some Lithuanian into my feeble brain. I was proud that I remembered the word for price when I was at the market yesterday. Priorities, priorities.
We spent the morning doing what needed to be done, laundry, school work, etc. Del worked on on tomorrows presentation to school librarians. Then for lunch, I made huge salads from those mixed salad greens in the plastic shells, beets, onions, cucumber, a little mould cheese (love that translation) and oil and red wine vinegar. Yesterday was the first time I had seen anything other than the occasional baby leaf lettuce in the markets, and I was so excited. It was like eating spring. I also cooked a few slices of the sausage from the bacon man at the Old Market. It was okay, but I don't know that it was what I expected - very salty and almost too smoky. It made me wonder if there was artificial smoke flavor in it. You wouldn't have thought you could get meat too salty for the Va. ham woman, would you? I'm glad I only bought a small piece. I was not sure whether it needed to be cooked. The man had offered me a taste in the store, but he also offered me a taste of bacon, and I know that was raw.
We left for church early today, because it was our turn to set up and take down the chairs, get out the hymnals, heat the water for tea and wash up after. It really isn't that big a deal, because just about everyone puts his/her own chair away. The pictures, not really good ones, are of the podium and cross from the church. They are made from driftwood, which is fitting since this is a sea community. After we were done, we went to dinner at the Thai restaurant with a couple from Texas and our neighbor from Goshen, Indiana. I had a curried fish dish, and Del had calamari in a hot, hot. hot red chili sauce. Both were quite good, and more what we had expected than the Pad Thai I had the other week.
Home to Skype the kids. Rosa was reading and swinging in the back yard, and David was sitting on the deck doing some work. Tracy is just getting over a cold. We got to see Rosa jumping rope, or as the kids at Tallmadge Primary said, jump roping. She has been studying Egypt in Target class, so the three of them went to an exhibit as Emory this weekend.
Tomorrow I will try to beat some Lithuanian into my feeble brain. I was proud that I remembered the word for price when I was at the market yesterday. Priorities, priorities.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Day33 Saturday - Will There Be Fireworks?
Today was a pretty uneventful day. Del worked, and I did laundry and walked to the open air market, the Humana, and Iki. It was relatively warmer today, felt like 14 most of the day. My first stop was at the Humana, where I bought a muffler that is twice as long as I am tall. I figured it might shrink, but I threw it into the wash as soon as I got home, and it didn't. I figure it will keep me warm about the head and shoulders. When it gets past muffler weather, I will unravel it and turn it into something. Then on to the open air market where I bought a beautiful pair of hand knit mittens to wear over my leather gloves. The lady at the stall thought that was really strange. She kept shaking her head and demonstrating taking off the gloves and putting the mittens on. I kept saying the Lithuanian word for "cold" and shivering dramatically in hopes that she would understand. 16 lita later, I was off to the meat market, waving at her with happy hands. I also stopped by to say laba diena to the suspender man.
I bought bacon, a sausage recommended by the bacon man's stall neighbor and a small piece of fresh ham. I also bought a small piece of sause - the pig parts jello I talked about before. It was quite tasty with vinegar and saltine crackers. It tasted very much like it did when I was a child, except that there was neither red nor black pepper involved. This is not a very peppery country. I may start carrying a shaker of black and a shaker of red pepper in my day pack for emergencies. The food is delicious, but when you eat pepper on everything, including watermelon and cantelope, pepper is not optional. I heard Cokie Roberts, say on tv that she carries a small bottle of tabasco in her purse for bland food emergencies. I was told that saltines are a rather new thing here. These taste just like Premium saltines, and each large package is made up of little packages of 4 cracker rectangles. It's like those expensive forced moderation packages of various snacks in the US. Because there are only four crackers in the package, I can be quite satisfied with four crackers, and they stay really fresh. I stopped at the Iki for milk and toilet paper, etc. and then home.
Thank goodness we have the new Iki, because when I turned on the gas to light the eyes of the stove to make dinner, the Bic stove lighter was empty. I had seen a box of matches in a drawer, so I thought it was no problem, but there was only one left in the box. I used it to light one eye and a twist of paper to light the others. Del went out to take the trash- about 2 blocks- and then ran into Iki to get matches to hold us over until we get back to Hyper Maxima for a replacement lighter thingy. By the time he got home, dinner was ready - chicken breast, broccoli, beet salad and potatoes.
We Skyped with Daryl Lyn and Tommy, with a brief appearance from the bride to be. They have had the stomach flu from guess where, but are all better now.
Give us a Skype if you get a chance. bettymae62 We would love to hear your news.
In case you forgot, my spell checker still speaks only Lithuanian, so I'm relying on my own spelling and proof reading skills, or actually lack of them. Sorry.
Enjoy your Sunday!
I bought bacon, a sausage recommended by the bacon man's stall neighbor and a small piece of fresh ham. I also bought a small piece of sause - the pig parts jello I talked about before. It was quite tasty with vinegar and saltine crackers. It tasted very much like it did when I was a child, except that there was neither red nor black pepper involved. This is not a very peppery country. I may start carrying a shaker of black and a shaker of red pepper in my day pack for emergencies. The food is delicious, but when you eat pepper on everything, including watermelon and cantelope, pepper is not optional. I heard Cokie Roberts, say on tv that she carries a small bottle of tabasco in her purse for bland food emergencies. I was told that saltines are a rather new thing here. These taste just like Premium saltines, and each large package is made up of little packages of 4 cracker rectangles. It's like those expensive forced moderation packages of various snacks in the US. Because there are only four crackers in the package, I can be quite satisfied with four crackers, and they stay really fresh. I stopped at the Iki for milk and toilet paper, etc. and then home.
Thank goodness we have the new Iki, because when I turned on the gas to light the eyes of the stove to make dinner, the Bic stove lighter was empty. I had seen a box of matches in a drawer, so I thought it was no problem, but there was only one left in the box. I used it to light one eye and a twist of paper to light the others. Del went out to take the trash- about 2 blocks- and then ran into Iki to get matches to hold us over until we get back to Hyper Maxima for a replacement lighter thingy. By the time he got home, dinner was ready - chicken breast, broccoli, beet salad and potatoes.
We Skyped with Daryl Lyn and Tommy, with a brief appearance from the bride to be. They have had the stomach flu from guess where, but are all better now.
Give us a Skype if you get a chance. bettymae62 We would love to hear your news.
In case you forgot, my spell checker still speaks only Lithuanian, so I'm relying on my own spelling and proof reading skills, or actually lack of them. Sorry.
Enjoy your Sunday!
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