There’s a Day for That

Did you know that today is National Chocolate Day?  I didn’t until I saw it on a food blog that I have just started following.

I have noticed lately that there seems to be a lot of “Days.” The obvious ones, the ones that you hear about the most, seem to be around a variety of professions.  National Nurses Day is on  May 6th.  We just missed Teachers Day on October 5th.  And sometime during the year there is Secretaries Day and Hug a Plumber Day.  Veterans Day is coming up on November 11th.

National Techies Day was October 3rd.  I missed that one.  I guess I was too busy celebrating our wedding anniversary.  October 4th, however, is a day not to be missed next year.  National Vodka Day?  Count me in!

There are days for just about any food.  I found fritters, cotton candy, gazpacho, bouillabaisse, maple syrup, roast suckling pig, oatmeal muffin, sangria, French fried shrimp, vinegar, doughnut, nachos, pickle, baklava, stuffing, French toast, whipped cream, popcorn, granola bar, Irish coffee, blueberry pancake, peanut butter and peanut brittle, homemade soup, frozen yogurt, fettuccine alfredo, tortellini, plum pudding, chocolate soufflé, and cream cheese brownie days.  Whew!  And those are just days in five months.  I didn’t look at the other seven.

I’m sorry I missed National Pro-Life Cupcake Day on October 9th.  I’ll put in on the calendar now so I don’t miss it next year.

There are some that just make me scratch my head.  Moldy Cheese Day was on October 9th and No Bra Day was October 13th.  Must I ask why?

We will be busy on December 2nd.  We will be celebrating National Mutt Day.

So how are you celebrating National Chocolate Day?  Me?  I think we’ll have brownies for dessert tonight.


AMDG

Photo Credit

The Long Awaited and Much Anticipated Nancy Brown is Here!

If you have read this blog for any length of time, it comes as no surprise that I am an avid fan of GK Chesterton.  In addition to reading a number of his works, I have also had the opportunity to attend several of the conferences hosted by the American Chesterton Society. 

 

We had the pleasure of meeting, and also sharing a college dorm apartment, with Nancy Brown at the first conference we attended at Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.   At a later conference, Nancy gave one of the talks.  Her topic?  The woman behind the man - Frances Chesterton.  Although the couple lived a century earlier, I started to identify with them.  They, too, dealt with infertility and never had children. 

 

Nancy has written a number of books, but this is the one for which I have been waiting - The Woman Who Was Chesterton.  I've been looking forward to reading this for a while and my mailbox held a welcome surprise when I got home from work.   

 

I haven't started it yet, but my guess is that you, too, should have your own copy.  You can get it here, here, or here.  I'm in the middle of reading two other books.  I guess it's now three.

 



 AMDG

The Dinner Party That Wasn't, or Was It?

A couple of weeks ago I called my husband's aunt and invited her and her husband over for dinner.  We planned on Sunday, the 18th, at 2pm.  Himself and I haven't seen them for a while, probably at a graduation or First Communion party, and were looking forward to their visit.

 

We spent yesterday cleaning and picking produce from our garden.  I made an apple pie and a loaf of pumpkin bread so that we would have a couple of choices for dessert.

 

Before church I prepped the carrots and potatoes that were going into the crockpot with the pot roast.  While I was setting the table, I mentioned to himself that we should do this more often, but just for ourselves.  He looked at me quizzically. 

 

I am admittedly not a good housekeeper.  I am great at keeping clutter at bay but I don't dust, vacuum or do all those other cleaning type things nearly often enough.  But, oh how good I feel when the house is clean!  I figured that we should do a deep clean more often and have our Sunday dinner in the dining room at a prettily set table.

 

Well, two o'clock came and went.  One of the roads nearby is closed for construction, so we thought that they might be delayed by the detour.

 

At about two thirty we started thinking that maybe they thought we had planned on 3pm.

 

When three o'clock passed, we started to get worried.  We were hoping and praying nothing bad had happened.

 

Finally, at about twenty after three I called his aunt.  Since she has caller ID she knew immediately who it was on the other end of the line.  She asked sheepishly "Are we supposed to be there this weekend?" 

 

Yep, she had written down our dinner plans for the 25th, not the 18th.  She felt so bad and couldn't apologize enough.  As long as they were okay and nothing bad had happened, we didn't care.

 

And, actually it worked out okay.  We did just what I had wanted to do in the future.  We had a dinner party for two.   

AMDG

The TV Show That Broke My Heart

The TV show Castle has quickly become one of my favorites.   In turn, it can funny, pithy, serious, and suspenseful.  You know from the start that Richard Castle was falling madly and deeply in love with Kate Beckett.  She fought it for a while, but finally succumbed to his charms.

 

As a woman, you want to be her – a beauty pursued in a gentle, persistent, and insistent manner.  I think guys want to be him - intelligent, masculine, handsome and funny.   It took six seasons, but Castle and Beckett finally became “Caskett,” tying the knot in a romantic, sunset, beachside, intimate wedding. 

 

The recent two part season opener, however, makes me want to bag the series.  Kate has demons from her past, and apparently some deep secret, that only a stranger can help her excise.  So, in order to “protect” Castle, her husband, she leaves him.

 

Huh???

 

There are days when Himself and I can annoy the bejeezus out of each other.  But, when it comes right down to it, he is the one person that I know I can count on, no matter what.  He has my back. He’s there to help me, to protect me, and sometimes, even save me from myself.  He knows I will do the same.

 

Castle may be just a television show, but I think it reflects something bigger.   Marriage has become something where we only want our spouse to see our better parts.   Wedding vows on television are all about “you make me smile” and “you’re my best friend” and “I like who I am when I am with you” sort of things.   That's the easy part. 

What about I’ll love you and honor you in good times and in bad?  If there are demons out there, I want to fight them together. 

That’s the kind of marriage I want.

 

AMDG

It Was a 'Yeah God' Sorta Day

As I mentioned in TToT(10), two weeks ago I was in Colorado and Wyoming.  I needed to be in Cheyenne on Monday morning for training at our plant and the flight was much, much cheaper if I flew in on Saturday rather than Sunday.

So that left me with a day to “kill”.  Sunday found me driving from Denver to Estes Park and then on to Cheyenne.  What a day that was!

A former coworker who had just moved to Estes Park gave me some advice about things to see.  She also warned me that on a weekend traffic could be heavy and therefore slow.  Taking that into account, I hit the road early.

I have to admit that I find much of Colorado rather meh.  It’s a dessert after all, lots of dry grass and sandy brown dirt.  But this drive showed me the beauty in all that.  Huge, wide open spaces and vistas like none other I’ve seen.

As I drove north on I25 I began to think I was seeing things.  UFO sorta things.  And I was.  Hot air balloons and lots of them.  Out came the camera and my first attempt at road photography began.
  

 



 

I had the radio tuned to a local country music station.  As I got closer to the mountains, Tim McGraw's song Top of the World came on.  Oh so appropriate!

Don't know where we're gonna be
But I know we're gonna be
Sitting on top of the world
So keep hanging on to me
Yeah, don't you wanna be
Sitting on top of the world
Top of the world

 

 

I stopped at the Visitors Center in Estes Park.  When I told the woman there that I had limited time but would love to see some of Rocky Mountain National Park she suggested Lily Lake.  It was a fairly easy drive and didn't require paying a fee to enter.  Since I was a little uncertain about driving some of the roads I had seen in RMNP, and I was too cheap to pay the twenty dollar entrance fee, it sounded perfect.

It was. 

It doesn't matter what direction I looked, the views are stunning.  I would walk ten or twenty feet, stop, take a picture, and repeat.  I met an artist along the way and chatted with her a bit.  She was happy to share her work with me.  As we talked I told her that seeing all this made me think "Yeah God!" and she agreed.

 

 

 

 

The day ended with the lunar elcipse.  I stood in the parking lot of my hotel watching it with a dozen or so other travelers, knowing that Himself was at home doing the same.

I couldn't help but think about how awesome the day had been.  How perfect, how glorious a world our good Lord gave us. 

Shouldn't every day be a Yeah God sorta day?

AMDG

 

TToT (10) - Here, There and Everywhere

 

Thank you for all the wonderful comments last week.  I was traveling for work and did not get to respond or comment as I would have liked.  But, alas, this is a new week and the possibilities are endless! 

 

- one-

Both of my flights and the above said trip not only left on time, they both arrived early.  I was in my rental car at the time my first flight was supposed to arrive.  Got to like that!

- two-

 The weather was perfect, unlike the last time I made this trip.  Highs were anywhere from mid-seventies to low nineties and the sky was crystal clear blue.  Beautiful!

- three-

While in Denver I took in a baseball game at Coors Field.  Since neither team playing was my team, I had to root, root, root for the home team, and, while I did not stay to the very end, they pulled out a win in the bottom of the ninth.

 - four-

A former coworker told me about a festival that was going on that weekend in Estes Park.  I called it the 'beer and brats' festival, though I'm sure it had a better name.  The beer and brats, however, were mighty tasty.

- five -

At the festival there was a great Eagles cover band.  They did an excellent jobs and made people watching especially enjoyable.  If only I could have gotten a picture of the couple dancing that were wearing matching kilts!

 

- six -

I had little bit of time before I left for the airport on the way home, so I stopped the at the train depot in downtown Cheyenne. 

 

- seven -

Usually I drive myself to the airport and take a shuttle back and forth to the parking.  This time Himself drove me.  What a glorious sight to come home to after a long day of traveling!

- eight -

We spent Friday wandering a local arts show that we attend every year.  Himself bought a print of the picture below for me.  It's going to be the focal point of my office when I redecorate it this fall.  We had a great conversation with the artist, a gentleman from New Jersey.

- nine -

It rained and was cool yesterday, just like it was seventeen years ago.  It was a great day just to laze about, read, relax and enjoy only the second fire of the season.  Seventeen years ago we a bit busier.

- ten -

We celebrated our 17th anniversary yesterday.  Where did the time go???

 

Check out more goodness at  A Fly on Our (Chicken Coop) Wall.

AMDG

 

First Photo: October 2015

I am trying to soak in the sunshine and warmth and green while it is still here.  There are signs, some subtle, others not so, of the changing season. Hints of red in the burning bush and yellows and oranges peaking among the trees give a glimpse of what is to come.

But just now, I want to stand still and take in what is.  Because what is coming will be here soon enough.


AMDG