Reminiscing

It's been incredibly hot here and most of my activities have been indoors. The Ruth Reichel book was good and there are some cool recipes in it. As soon as I get copies of the chocolate cake and roasted leg of lamb recipes, I will pass this one on to someone else. I just started reading a Jodi Picoult book entitled Plain Truth. It's about an Amish family and so far most of the plot seems to take place around Paradise.

Just reading the beginning two chapters, when she mentions Philly and the Lancaster county area...it makes me smile. I loved going to Blue Ball, Epherta and other places in the Lancaster area when I was a kid. My father always drove. The car would be packed with my mom, my two grandmothers (Pierce and Jackson)and me. Occasionally it would just be me, Mom, Dad and Nana Jackson .......but the trips were always the same theme. We'd go to some outlets and shop; we'd stop at the Akron restaurant and eat the most amazing honey fried chicken and red velvet chocolate cake....I'm salivating just thinking of it! Dad would kindly pull off and stop near a farm so I could look at the pigs. I would run to the fencing and as the smell grew stronger, enveloping me in a funk so sour that I would be gagging, I'd soldier on so I could see the enormous hogs furrowing around the mud. Ok, it doesn't sound like fun but to a 10 year old who loved animals it was quite a treat. There was actually another motive to pull over at this farm. The family sold eggs and vegetables. They were just sitting there on a table with a box for the money. It was the honor system, something I'd bet doesn't still exist in that area today. My father would put a few dollars in the box and take the goods he selected.

But I digress...the Picoult book is just started and it's the third one I've read by this author. They certainly aren't "feel good" or chick lit books but she has a great descriptions of what life is really like.

I sent a package to a Navy guy in Afghanistan and recently learned he's been out of touch for over 60 days so they removed him from the list on AnySailor website. So now I have a female soldier stationed in Iraq that is requesting magazines, lotion, etc. The flat rate boxes at the post office are great for shipping lots of heavy books and magazines. I will get that out this weekend.
Also this weekend I will surprise my lovely cousin Char with a package I'd meant to send out two weeks ago.

Tristan is enjoying his motorcycle very much. He already has over 725 miles on it. He bought me Guild wars expansion pack for my birthday...he's a thoughtful young man :o) So now we all have that game loaded on our computers. And we can play together so that's a lot of fun. I gave Doug my software and loaded the expansion pack Tristan got me. So far I have 4 characters created and you wouldn't believe how much fun it is just trying to get an original name. We all sat around laughing when we tried every Monty Python character name and saw they were taken. I mean, even "huge tracts of land" was taken so that's a real fan..As were names like Zoot of Anthrax, Dingo of Anthrax, Tim the Enchanter....the list goes on. It was as much fun seeing the names as it was playing. To my chagrin "Anthony Bourdain" was taken...

Next up on the Pierce project is Mary E. Pierce Newton's bio. She isn't the next sibling after Annie, but I did it out of order and wrote up George Pierce's bio on the January 28th entry. I need to contact cousin Mark and see if he has any additional info on Mary as he is her direct descendant. After Mary I just have to work on Frank Pierce. That's it for that generation. I sure wish i had some photos of these people.

Lazy Sunday

We went camping last weekend and had a very good time. The week and a half before we had been determined to trade our truck and camper for a more fuel efficient car. After driving the two choices (Matrix and Scion) we decided the truck was much more comfortable and we really enjoy camping. So...we took off for Lake Seminole State Park in Georgia.

The park is very nice and the campsites are large. Most likely this is accommodate a camper and a boat. We were among the very few campers without a boat. The water was close to the campsites and it was great weather to sit outside and watch people ride by in their boats or on jet skis. Saturday night the campground host came by to tell us to bring in the awning as a big storm was headed our way. Evidently it caused tornadoes and hail. Other campers were almost panicking in their efforts to pack up and drive away. Some left without emptying their black and gray water tanks! One family left the dog stake tie down in their site. Thankfully they took the dog.

Since it was so late, and since we'd had a bottle of nice Cotes du Rhone with dinner, and we made storm preparations such as bringing in all the chairs, awning, etc...we stayed the night. Nothing happened. Despite the weather map that showed all red in the way of a mother of a storm headed into us...we had maybe 4 drops of rain. Literally. So many people left in panic that by Sunday morning we were only 1 of 4 families left in the entire campground. Wild!

Tristan is now in day two of a motorcycle safety course. He had a good time yesterday and got a little sunburned. He should have his bike by the end of this week. The Triumph came in and after he gets his insurance handled they'll deliver the bike to the house.

Today I am trying to figure out a game called Guild Wars and I have a pile of Amos Pierce information to type. We'll have pastisio for dinner (Greek ziti)and just enjoy the good weather we are having.