We had some technical difficulties around here yesterday. I am now upgraded to the newest version of wordpress, and things seem to be working just fine.
I’m at home in PA for a visit with the fam. Updates will resume soon. 🙂
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Category Archives: family
Seven years
And I link to this post again.
I’ve posted this photo before, but I just adore it so much.
I can’t believe it’s been seven years. I still wish I could have introduced her to Rand. I still wish she was going to be here to see me get married.
I miss you, gram.
Merry Christmas!
Wishing you all a happy, peaceful, love-filled day.
Thursday Thoughts: Bellsnickel
December 6 is St. Nicholas Day. In my hometown, we celebrated a similar tradition, but instead of St. Nicholas, we were visited by Belsnickel. Here’s a brief mention I found on Wikipedia:
Belsnickel (or Belschnickel) is a Pennsylvania Dutch mythical being who visits children at Christmas time. If they have not been good, they will find coal and/or switches in their stockings. The Belsnickel was a scary creature not well loved except by parents wanting to keep their children in line.
Belsnickel is also similar to Krampus in Austria and Germany.
I did grow up in a very German part of Pennsylvania, and my area of the state had adapted a version of this story. Our Belsnickel wasn’t exactly scary, though…we thought of him as a jolly elf of sorts. On the night of Dec. 5, we’d leave our shoes out, and Belsnickel would leave a small gift (candy or little toys) for you if you’d been good.
I received small gifts from Belsnickel well into my adulthood. 😉 (Here’s one previous mention on the blog…I had spelled it Bellsnickle, and I’ve been noticing a lot of google searches leading people here! Hope you find what you’re looking for…)
There’s some more information under the “Companions of St. Nicholas” entry in Wikipedia.
Weekend wrap-up
This weekend was pretty mellow…which believe me, is fine!
Friday night, Rand and I caught up on some TV watching. Saturday, we intended to catch a showing of The Darjeeling Limited at the Amherst…however, when we arrived (after lunch at Brodo), we found that the 2 pm showing had been canceled due to a private event. Feh.
Went grocery shopping. We’d intended to feed our little can of change into the Coinstar machine, but found that we would have been waiting a very long time. A couple had made it to the machine ahead of time with several large vats full of change. No kidding. We decided to try again after our shopping was done, but they were still there. After having fed nearly $1000 worth of change into the machine. Mildly annoying.
Later, we watched Hot Fuzz, which we’d gotten from Netflix *months* ago. No kidding. I liked it. Probably not quite as much as I liked Shaun of the Dead, but I liked it quite a bit.
Sunday, we visited with Rand’s family and watched Ghostbusters, which David had rented for his son. Hee.
The only other notable thing about the weekend? I’ve begun having wedding stress dreams. Three nights in a row. This had better not continue until the wedding. I’ll lose my mind. In the first dream, someone had brought me my clothes, but forgot my shoes. In the second dream, we forgot the music. And in the third dream, tons of people just didn’t show up (and not, y’know…third cousins I didn’t really care about. Like my best friends didn’t show up. It was dreadful.).
So yeah. Maybe I need to step up the yoga? Meditate? Hire a wedding planner? 😉 (Kidding about that last one. I’m not hiring a wedding planner.)
Hope you all had a pleasant weekend.
Friday Photo
It’s been a long and busy day…but here is my Friday Photo:
I did a quick look to see if I had ever posted this one before, and I couldn’t find it. If I have…oh well.
Anyway, this photo was taken when I was a flower girl in my aunt and uncle’s wedding in approximately 1978. Wasn’t I cute? 😉
Since I was so young, I’m pretty sure this was my first wedding experience. I don’t remember all that much about it. I think I made it down the aisle without any tears. I was disappointed that I didn’t actually get to drop flower petals along the aisle. I danced with the ring bearer at the wedding. (I have no idea who the ring bearer was at the wedding…)
The reception was held at a place called the Kersey Community Building. My mom and dad’s reception was there, my other aunt’s reception was there, and my cousin Amanda’s reception was there. Basically, the community building is a big old gymnasium with a stage. For a long time, it was the only place in Elk County big enough to hold a group larger than, say 150. It still exists, but apparently, they don’t do receptions there anymore.
Other than that, I remember that it wasn’t a big deal for me to think of Uncle Steve as my uncle, because he’d been in the picture for, well, pretty much my whole life. Now, I’m going to be making the transition to “auntie” for Rand’s nephews.
Kooky. 🙂
Weekend wrap-up
Rand and I went to Pennsylvania over the weekend for my cousin Meghan’s wedding. I’m waiting for my dad to post some actual photos of the ceremony, because I wasn’t in a very good position to get them…
On kind of a whim, we stopped for dinner at Blasdell Pizza in Springville. I’d never had it before, but Rand had. I heartily approve. 🙂
Friday night was pretty mellow. We went to the reception hall to help with some last-minute decorating things. Saturday morning, I finally had the chance to cash in a massage gift certificate I received last Christmas. Ahhh…very nice!
The ceremony began at two, and we headed over early. My brother needed to be there to hand out programs. The photographer was one of my old high school teachers, so I chatted with him briefly about my becoming a teacher and teaching eighth grade. He told me that when he made the move from teaching middle school to teaching high school (after 14 years), he found that his 40-minute lesson plan only took 15 minutes. I laughed. Everything takes three times as long with middle schoolers because you’re constantly saying things like “be quiet,” “don’t touch that,” “put that down,” and “stop it.” 😉
While I couldn’t take any actual ceremony photos, I did get a couple of interesting shots during the ceremony:
Amanda (Meghan’s sister) was the matron of honor. Her son, Colten, was the ring bearer. I caught this cute shot of Colten resting on daddy.
My cousin Scott (Meghan’s brother) sang Ave Maria quite beautifully. I continue to be impressed with his talent. 🙂
The reception had a sort of garden faerie theme. This was their cake:
There was, of course, the obligatory cake-smooshing. I was assured that there will be no cake smooshing at mine. 😉
We posed for a family photo, which I think is pretty nice…but for the redeye I can’t remove and the slightly crazed expression on my brother’s face.
Then I posed for a couple of shots with my “double sister.” (Leslie, my sister-in-law, and I were in the same sorority…)
There was much drinking, dancing and general carousing. The reception was huge–around 400 guests–and *everyone* was there to party. I did the chicken dance, which I have to admit that I like. I did not do the hokey pokey. The electric slide was not played. As is usually the case, I was unimpressed with the DJ.
Later, my aunt showed me some pictures I had drawn for her way back when (I’m guessing I was somewhere around ten). My repertoire consisted mainly of unicorns and Care Bears.
Later still, we enjoyed the adventures of Dudley, the Highly Energetic Shih Tzu. Here’s Dudley with his new most favorite toy, a Swiffer duster handle.
We went out for breakfast Sunday morning, then said our goodbyes and headed back to Buffalo.
All in all, a lovely weekend. Congratulations to Meghan and Tom!
Sunday stuff (and a meme)
So while I was at home over the weekend, I learned that Bigfoot has been sighted in Elk County.
I also attended my cousin’s wedding. More on that tomorrow, but for now, some photos are up here.
And now, a meme, courtesy of Samantha.
First, the rules:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] in [genre] is…”.Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
You can leave them exactly as is.
You can delete any one question.
You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question.
For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] in [genre] is…”.
You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.
Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.
Got it? I think I do. Here goes:
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is a k8, a cat, a mission.
My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Monkeygirl.
My great-great-great-great-grandparent is DancingFish.
My great-great-great-grandparent is Dr. Brazen Hussy.
My great-great-grandparent is Addy
My great-grandparent is MommyProf
My grandparent is Dr. Curmudgeon
My parent is Samantha Says…
The best television series in SciFi is: Firefly
The best cult movie in comedy is: UHF
The best romance novel in classic fiction is: Pride and Prejudice
The best recent movie in comedy is: Knocked Up
The best non-recent movie in romantic comedy is: When Harry Met Sally…
The best pop cover of a hip-hop song is: B*****s Ain’t S**t by Ben Folds
And I guess I have to tag some people…so how about Stephanie, Hillary, Ensie, Caoimhe, and Mark.
House to House
Earlier this week, David Bellavia’s book House to House was reviewed on NPR’s morning edition.
David, as you may know, is Rand’s brother. I have to admit that I haven’t read the book yet, but not because I don’t want to. Life has been busy, and I know that reading this book is going to take a lot out of me. Rand has read parts to me aloud, and shown me various passages…and even just those little bits have both disturbed and deeply moved me. I don’t think David’s book is partisan, so if that’s what you’re looking for, go elsewhere. It is a terrifyingly real account of what it means to be in combat. It is emotional and violent and spiritual.
David will be appearing at the Pittsford Barnes and Noble this Saturday, Oct. 20, for a book signing at 7 p.m.
In a couple of weeks, he’ll be at the new Barnes and Noble on Transit Road (corner of Transit and Main)…Saturday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.
If you have any interest at all in the book, I recommend stopping by. David’s a pretty cool guy, besides. 🙂
Wedding weekend
This adorable couple is Rand’s cousin, Paul Spitale, and his girlfriend Tyra. They met on the show Confessions of a Matchmaker. (their episode is the only one I’ve seen…if you watch the show, Paul is aka the “wannabe rock star”) Meeting online is SO 2004…
We got to hang out with them at Kristen’s wedding, which was a lot of fun. Photos here.