a peachy martini

I've had an interesting day food wise. For lunch I went to Brava's Burgers on Fairfield.  Really excellent burgers and hot dogs but I had their poutine. I first tasted poutine in Canada. It's made with fried potatoes or french fries covered with gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. May not sound like much but it is really good. Then on to dinner this evening at Main Street Bistro. The salad was fine, the scallops were yummy but the hit of the evening for me was my peachy martini. I'm not a big fan of martinis but their peachy martini is really excellent. Such a yummy day!

Want to try Eukonkanto?

One of the fun presents I received for Christmas is a page a day Trivia calendar. Each day I'm presented with a trivia question - answer on the back of the page. I have known, or been able to guess all of the answers until yesterday when I learned that the original manuscript of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" was eaten by his dog? Really? The dog ate his manuscript? Does this mean the dog had good taste or was the manuscript written on particularly tasty paper? Did the dog eat the whole manuscript? It is a fairly lengthy novel after all. Did the dog survive?
While I was still pondering these questions, I read today's entry. It seems that Finland hosts a world championship race in the sport of Eukonkanto. What is Eukonkanto? Turns out it's also know as "wife carrying". I think that might be a sport worth watching. If it was televised, I would watch that instead of football or golf. Maybe Fort Wayne should introduce it as part of the Three Rivers Festival.

a close encounter of the wrong kind

I was driving along in the left lane on the north bound side of Coldwater Road today on my way to pick up my grandchildren from school. Traffic was light and people were driving rather slowly because of the light snow.  As I came over a slight rise I realized that there was a white pick-up truck facing me, kind of diagonally, in my lane. Needless to say there should not have been a truck facing toward me in my lane. As quickly as I figured that out I tapped my brakes and began to skid. Fortunately there was no one close behind me so I was able to swerve into the other lane and get past the truck. After a while my heart beat slowed down and, not haring any crashing noises behind me, I proceeded on my way. I can only assume the truck hit the same slick spot I did, possibly going a little faster (I do drive like a little old grandma on snow) and spun around. I think I owe a debt of gratitude to my guardian angel who was obviously working overtime today.

a funny little elevator encounter

Picture the scene - three ladies of a certain age get on the library elevator together to ride down to the main floor (one floor so not a long ride). As we got on we were all looking rather somber, not really looking at each other, you know how people do on elevators. Then I noticed that one of the ladies was wearing a pair of really bright, pretty red boots so I complimented her on them. That got the three of us talking about liking distinctive clothes. Then the third lady said, while she liked fancy clothes, all she really wanted was a rich man. Red boots lady immediately asked if he had a brother, i added a request for triplets and we all agreed that we weren't fussy about color. This was a mixed race elevator group. By the time the elevator doors opened we were all laughing like crazy. I love it when elevator encounters work out this way.

a chance to plan ahead

I received my Three Rivers newsletter today. That's the one with the calendar that lists all of the special days for the month. I don't usually write before the fact about these exciting special days but two of them caught my attention. Next Monday, January 9, is "Clean Off Your Desk Day" followed two days later by "January is Get Organized Month". I think they're trying to tell me something. It's not that I'm wildly disorganized, not really, but my desk does seem to be a clutter magnet. Everything I don't want to deal with right now seems to end up there. Second runner up is my coffee table. Every once in a while I dig in and clear everything off; filing, pitching and organizing. This usually happens a day or so before company is coming. I recently shared with my daughter-in-law what I thought was my secret for a quick clean up before company - gather up all of the stacks of papers that have accumulated on desks, tables and counters, stick it all in brown paper sacks and hide them. I always found that the best place to hide the bags of to-be-dealt-with-later stuff was my bedroom closet. Presumably even guests who explore your bath room cabinets won't peak in your bedroom closet. An added benefit is that, as these bags of paperwork accumulate in your closet, they create a nice insulating barrier against an outside wall. Interestingly, as I was sharing my paper sack clutter solution plan with some friends I discovered that I'm not by any means the only one who uses this plan. It's evidently a time honored tradition in some households. Who Knew?

follow up on the great ball drop

Heard on the morning news today - over 5000 people attended the great ball drop here in Fort Wayne  on New Years Eve.  I believe that.  There were lots of people packed into a half block area.  One of the producers / promoters of this event said that they were pleased with the turn out but realized they need to make some improvements for next year. He suggested more food and drink sources, a greater variety of music and entertainment, and finally - this is what I was waiting for - a better ball drop experience. It really won't take much to improve on the ball drop which was simply a relatively small light image projected on a brick wall which kind of slid down the wall as we all counted down.  They were also projecting the numbers (minutes and seconds) on the wall and I personally think it would have been more effective to simply show the numbers, count down and shoot off the fireworks. Don't worry about the ball, just enlarge the fireworks display. That's my suggestion for what it's worth. I did hear one commentator suggest that they should drop a giant apple for Johnny Appleseed. Maybe they could station someone on the roof of the building who could tip a bushel of apples over the side to cascade down the wall as the clock strikes midnight. It would be more exciting that what they had this year. Ok, that's all my griping. I really am glad it's 2017. Happy New Year again, everyone.

Another thing to add ot my list,

my "I don't ever want to do that." list, that is. A clip on the local news reminded me of this. I do not ever want to sky dive, bungee jump, dive off a 100 foot cliff, eat chocolate covered ants, engage in mud wrestling, swim in the St. Mary's River - you get the idea.  I'm not sure where this ranks on my list but I absolutely never want to participate in the Polar Plunge. What is the allure of stripping down to your shorts or swim suit in winter weather and running madly with a bunch of other crazy people (a bit like lemmings) into an ice cold river? Today was a beautiful day to take a brisk walk around Headwaters Park but jumping into the river? No thank you.