Ahhhh, all that bakery goodness

Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday. Call it what you will, the subtitle for today is a day of fried bakery goodness. In years past we have done our requisite paczki purchasing at the location of greatest convenience (read: the nearest grocery store), and we enjoyed them plenty. Ahhh, but we were so deprived. This year, in a show of loyalty and appreciation, I pre-ordered a half dozen paczki from the Dexter Bakery (for those of you who don't know, Calvin and I visit the bakery every Thursday for a weekly pretzel treat, and are on a very friendly first name basis with many of the bakery personnel).  We were rewarded with a taste of heaven itself.  Far from the pre-produced, dried out blobs of fat sitting on shelves at the grocery store, the box that I was handed at our local bakery was still actually warm; not only had they baked all night, but they were keeping at it during the day to provide customers with the freshest product possible. It helps to know people, too - since we didn't come in to pick up our pre-order "early enough" in the day, they replaced the tasties with fresh ones when we got there.  Oooooooooh.

The three of us split one traditional custard paczki after dinner.  It was Calvin's inaugural paczki experience and he savored his third of the delectable with a relish that ended in an only moderately messy face (after all, it does a lot more good to the taste buds than the skin).  And, in case you are keeping count, I fully intended to share those six calorie fests outside our immediate family, and I did. I gave a raspberry one to my mom.

Have you lost the magic?

Shopping.  Cooking.  Stress over company, wrapping, cleaning, and correspondence.  Is this what the holidays become as we grow older?  I love Christmas and have fought what many see as the inevitable loss of the magic even as I have gained in years what I have lost in innocence (there were possibly a few touchy moments in more recent years where the exactitude of the occasion began to overtake the sweetness of the event) but nothing has done more for my holding onto that magic than having a child.  All week we planned to attend tonight's ceremonial lighting of the Christmas tree in downtown Dexter, but when today arrived with its blustery cold (only 18 degrees at noon), the affair looked far less inviting.  Not so to Calvin, though, and we found ourselves bundling up as best as we could, grumbling a bit under our freezing breath about the absurdity of the situation.  But it's hard to grumble on when faced with the shining stars of curiosity in your child's eyes at the site of the crowds, the warmth of the fires, and the beauty of the large tree.  Even more overwhelming to my heart was his wonder and excitement at exploring the dreamily lit, child friendly (i.e. ride on) manger scene;  he tried out all the camels, the donkey, the sheep, and then spent long moments gazing into the eyes of Mary, the kings, and even Baby Jesus.  Be still my fluttering heart, THIS is the magic of Christmas.

More pictures in the Dec 2008 album.

Calvin's first voting experience

Well, not really, since he went with me to vote in the primaries last spring, but he really seemed to take an interest in what we were doing today in a way that obviously didn't happen those several months ago.  Of course, that's likely because we made it a sort of holiday.  Our polling place is a little less than a mile away and, since there is a Koney Island en route and the weather was beautiful, we packed up early and headed out.  We started Calvin's day with a Mickey Mouse pancake, then walked the rest of the way to the polling place in a deliciously warm autumn sun.  Our wait was about 1.5 hours and my only complaint is that half of it was inside; what a waste on such a delightful day!  But Calvin was incredibly well behaved and the process was a very smooth one; we were voters number 1,003 and 1,004 (oh if only we'd been three people earlier!), which I took as a sign of great voter turnout since the population (total) of our district is only 3,500 and it was only 11am when we signed in.  On the way out Calvin was delighted to have earned his "I voted" sticker, and a cup of apple cider from the tent outside, and spent most of the walk home calling out "hurray, I voted!" to everyone we passed.  It seems an auspicious beginning to his relationship with this civic duty.

More pictures in the November 2008 album (yes, it really is November).

Thursdays in Chelsea

Though unfortunately it signifies the coming of the end (of summer, that is), the Chelsea Community Fair has been one of our favorite August destinations since our introduction to the festivities four years ago.  Of course four years ago the purpose of our visit was to take in the Figure Eight (Demolition) Derby, while this year it was to visit the cows.  And the pigs, and the sheep, and the chickens, and the goats, and all the other 4-H animals Calvin's heart could desire.  The sheep are always some of our favorites - they are usually the  noisiest of the barn animals and that makes them more interesting - but this year we also got the chance to pet a day old chick, and to watch an egg actually in the process of hatching (I say in the process because, unlike in the books we read, a real live egg hatching can take quite some time and this one made no real progress in the 10 minutes we watched it).  Calvin also eyed such rides as the Merry-Go-Round and the Ferris Wheel with a reserved interest, but we left before he could get any real ideas and  headed for downtown Chelsea where dinner would be less expensie and less dusty.  That's when we really lucked out, since apparently summer Thursday nights are music nights in downtown Chelsea and there were performers of every kind on nearly every corner.  We enjoyed some fiddling, some rocking, some barbershop, and some zydeko all within a block or so.  Calvin also enjoyed crossing and recrossing the train tracks, and we stopped for some dinner at the new Mexican restaruant, Las Fuentes (which we can't really recommend unless it's for the impeccable service, but the food and  margaritas left much to be desired and nobody goes to a Mexican restaurant for the service.  The next time we want Mexican we'll head back to Ypsi Township to La Fuente, which we highly recommend.  Apparently one fountain is better than many any day).  As with Independence Lake, our only sadness is that we did not discover Thursday Nights in Chelsea earlier in the season.

More pictures in the August 2008 album. 

Raining irony, and not much else.

Isn't that just the way it goes.  This morning we set out to tackle five errands, all at local vendors, on one round trip in the car, expecting thunderstorms and rain in the late afternoon and evening.  Our first stop, to the Dexter Farmers' Market, was fun and successful.  Our second stop, to the Dexter bike shop, produced only bad service (and no tire pump, since we finally got frustrated and walked out).  The early arrival of rain on our way to Turner's Garden Center to buy a rain barrel rendered that stop a bit disappointing, but at least the service was friendly and prompt.  The rain slowed in time for stops number four, to my parents' for transplant plants, and five, to the pumpkin field at Wing Farms to load our car up with free rocks (we can't wait to show you what we've been doing with those), and had stopped by the time we reached home at noon.  Still expecting storms and showers all evening I immediately set to the job of installing the new rain barrel, working straight through lunch, lest the threatening storm clouds should decide to produce a deluge with the downspout in pieces.  The installation was more involved than we had envisioned (meaning it required more tools) but was not difficult at all, the hardest part being the leveling of the the blocks we put the barrel on, and as I stepped back to take in my hard work, the sky cleared to a brilliant blue and the sun came out of hiding to reward us for our hard work and conservationism.  Not another cloud dotted the sky all day, let alone a drop of rain fall to test our new barrel, and ten days of forcasting don't predict any, either.  Mother Nature is truly a scornful omniscient.

All our frustrations aside, we are very excited about our new rain barrel.  Want to know more about them?  Try here.