Nothing Finer

I just gotta say... Our tomatoes are doing so great! We have gotten a small sampling of the cherry tomatoes so far - and they just taste fantastic. There's nothing finer than homegrown tomatoes!

And, oddly enough, I really like the smell of the tomato plants, too... :-)

Turkey Hill Ice Cream - Celebrating National Ice Cream Month

Just like last year, the good folks at the Turkey Hill Ice Cream blog are posting fun ice cream related stories to their blog every day during July - National Ice Cream Month. I'm not sure what the exact prizes are, but I know they pick commenters randomly and award prizes all month long. Fun stuff! So, stop by and read about ice cream, comment, and maybe get some prizes! Great ice cream, great fun!

And again, happy national ice cream month! :-)

Food Fest II

As promised, Food Fest II took place this weekend, and the following is a brief recap of the day's events.

The first eaters arrived around 11:00am, and much of the food was on the table, ready to be eaten! We had chips and salsa, chips and homemade Celery Seed Dip (a hit!), fresh sliced watermelon, deviled eggs, our favorite recipe potato salad, and Skyline was simmering in the crock pot! There was a big pitcher of fresh-brewed sweet tea, and some chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and I'm pretty sure there were a few other things I am forgetting!

We realized we were a tad low on the Frank's Red Hot, so after a quick trip to the store by the Chis, the next bunch of eaters arrived and we were ready to go! I threw some burgers and hot dogs (including some Zweigles!) on the grill and we started to eating! And it really never stopped!

Shortly after the burgers and dogs were done, the deep fryer arrived (borrowed from a friend) and we got ready to cook up the wings. We did take a slight break after the first food barrage, but that was filled by snacking on all of the above, including the additions of a fun apple salad and brownies cooked in a cast-iron skillet by the second group of eaters.

We played some board games, video games, and mostly hung out and talked (all while eating of course!) There was some napping, too! :-) More eaters came throughout the day, including our next door neighbors. I think I counted a total of twenty peoples coming through and joining Food Fest II.

No ice cream this year, but National Ice Cream Month officially starts tomorrow. So, get ready! Thirty-one straight days of ice cream! Food Fest never stops!

Plans for Food Fest III are already underway. Check back here at GregsHead.net for details! :-)

Ice Cream Party?

Jen sent me this link today, saying that I could win us a free ice cream party. Sounded good to me! Thought I'd pass it along here, as well. Tell Edy's why you think your neighborhood should host one of 1500 ice cream parties they'll be throwing. :-)

(Pretty sure ice cream runs through my veins... Forgot to mention that in the post below... been sharing lots of ice cream with lots of friends. OR, just eating it myself) :-)

¿Unos Mates?

Our friend, Laura, (who is from Argentina) sent me a link this morning to a series of videos from NBC's TODAY show that were done from Buenos Aires. There were a lot of videos there, but the link/video I noticed was the one above about the most common Argentine beverage, yerba mate.

Laura has gotten me hooked on this, and I drink it most days. (It can be sweetened a bit more than apparently it was in the video...) :-) Ian kind of likes it, and perhaps another kid or two will... but Jen is definitely not a fan. :-)

Anyway, just thought I would share this video here...

While I am tomando unos mates. :-)


[RELATED LINK: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24315283/]

Die Hard Fans

Neither snow, nor sickness, nor brand new baby, nor rain and 30 degree temps could keep us from being at our favorite ice cream spot on Wednesday! Chill & Grill opened on March 19th, and though we didn't get to take Emma there (nor did I have my traditional one-pound Monster Burger!) we did manage two visits on opening day. :-)

My favorite part is eating ice cream in the snow. :-)

We'll probably go another time or two this weekend. Today it's 30 degrees... might be up to about 36 by Sunday... we'll see...

Time for some ice cream!!

Big Fun Food Day

For a little while now our friend Leah and I have been trying to plan a time for she and Scott and Jen & I to have a fun food extravaganza as a sort of "last hurrah" before they move to Maryland. Many obstacles have delayed the outing, and even made it seem impossible. But yesterday... we finally made it happen!! It was tons of fun! And tons of FOOD!

I shall henceforth refer it to as the Big Fun Food Day. :-)

See, it all started with an idea in my head. We thought it would be fun to get babysitters for all our kids and go out on a "double date" with Scott & Leah before they leave, and I was trying to think of a fun place that they like to make it extra special. Well, the first one that came to mind is one that Leah likes, but Scott... hates. :-) (Funnier still, I also am a fan, but Jen is really not.) So, that wouldn't work... unless...

I thought we could try a "progressive dinner" style outing. Leah and I could eat our fill at the Indian buffet, and then we'd go straight to a place that Scott (& Jen) like to eat. I ran the idea by Jen, and she thought it was fun, and then by Leah, and she too thought it a fun plan... She ran it by Scott, who added his consent and then Leah added Coldstone to the mix for dessert! Ha! Three places in one outing! Fun stuff!

After a few failed attempts at finding a day that worked for all (schedule conflicts) and then finding willing babysitters for our four and their three kids, we finally made it work yesterday!

It all started at about 12:45pm or so. We met up at Willowbrook where we dropped our van and carpooled with them in their (very tiny!) car to the India House buffet. (Photo below... Jen took it, so ... she's not in it.) :-)



We had a crazy waiter here named Dave. He hit it off with Scott as they are both UFC (Ultimate Fight Challenge?) fans. He also introduced himself as Ravi and said he hates Indian food, music, and Indian people. That was awesome. :-) (We learned that the first thing he said was always false.) :-)

The food was awesome, and as I didn't plan on eating Indian food again for quite some time... I ate... three plates full. :-)

I was full.



Next we decided to head to a town about 20 minutes west where Scott's favorite restaurant resides. We had never been, so I made sure to sample some stuff, but MAN there was VERY little room for the samples! Scott & Jen feasted here. Leah did "sample" as well, of course... :-)

Funny story was... we got out there about 2:40 or so... and they didn't open till three!! So we went to Land's End next door for a bathroom for the pregnant lady and some clothes shopping for Leah (and Jen enjoyed looking at the kids stuff as well) :-)

Our waiter at Carrabba's was very good as well. And strangely reminded us of a friend of ours (all of us). They have different names though, so we think they are different people... :-)



It was super late when we left Carrabba's (we were having a great time!) so we didn't get to stay and eat at Coldstone, but we did swing by there on the way home, and three of us got SMALL ice creams. :-) (Actually, Leah got a medium sized one...) :-)

It was fantastic, but at that point, there was very little room for any more food, no matter how good it was! :-)

We finally got back to our kids at 6pm, and once we collected them and all their stuff, we went over to the Vs house for a little extra hang out (and our kids all got to see each other and play then, too). That actually ended with Jen making a quick run to McDonald's to round out the Big Fun Food Day (at least for the kids) with some burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and a snack wrap or two. :-)

It was certainly a memory, and a great, big, fun, day of food! :-)

More photos here.

Anyone Feeling Generous?

I have officially come to the end of my chai supply. I'm pretty sure I have mentioned it here before, but many of you who know me in person have frequently heard me herald the greatness of this warm beverage. My favorite brand so far is Big Train chai. (Pictured to the right.) They have some great deals at Amazon.com, but with a stack of bills waiting to be paid... I'm going to hold off on the purchase for now.

So I just thought I would offer you the opportunity to be super (cali-fragi) generous and send a little chai my way... (all you need to do is click the photo of chai.......) ;-)

Anyone feeling generous? :-)

National Hot Tea Month

I learned from my wife last night that January is national hot tea month. Now, I am known to have a cup or two a day... I am a fan of many kinds. (Big Train Chai is another favorite drink!) But with it being National Tea Month and all... I suppose I shall have to have a bit more. :-)

Care to join me for some tea?

(That's our awesome brown tea kettle in the photo by the way!)

Christmas Report II

When I was trying to think of what I needed to do today, I also remembered the past few days that have been. It seemed like today might be the first kinda normal day in a while. (Which, strangely makes it feel like Monday, maybe Tuesday...)

It's been quite a week! I'm sure it was for you as well. I think maybe we have an extra piece with Ian's birthday being on Christmas day. Because of that there are a few more celebration days for Ian in there. Like, we did our annual Birthday Burger at Red Robin sometime last week for his birthday. Balloons, singing, and all. It was awesome! Then the fun started again this past week... maybe on Saturday.

Saturday was the day we were singing at Wal-Mart. That shouldn't have been as eventful as it was, but after getting there and getting everything set up, I realized I had no guitar picks. And then we found out that Wal-Mart did not either! So, we went on a bit of a scavenger hunt, finally picking some up (pun intended) at a local music store. Then, to top it all off, after about an hour of singing - which was super fun! - I broke a guitar string. While that used to be commonplace, I am pretty sure that's the first time I have done that in most of TWO YEARS! Crazy!

After the string broke, we packed up and did a little last minute Christmas & birthday shopping there at Wal-Mart and a couple other stores. It was nice, just me and Jen. :-)

When we got back home, we did a few more things then packed up the troops for a trip to Victor. We actually went to the mall area on the Saturday before Christmas!! (We really needed an ink cartridge, and that's the closest office store...) After we picked that up, we stopped by our friends' house and hung out for a little while with them. Had some hot cocoa and fresh-baked Christmas cookies! :-)

Sunday morning brought a visit from some other friends. They were dropping their girls off so that they could go to the Bills/Giants game over in Buffalo! (They bought our tickets from us, a nice Christmas present for our friend the Giants fan. Unfortunately, turned out to be a little TOO nice!!) We kept their girls all day, and had a blast! The evening ended with a visit from John Dupra for a recording of the Buffalo Bills Review, and then some good Christmas cookies from our friends. :-)

Christmas Eve started later than I thought it would. We slept in a bit, then tried to decide what to do. We were going to make some Christmas gifts (food) for friends and drop them off, but then after talking with them, decided to wait on that. But then in talking with our football ticket friends, ended up deciding to bring Christmas dinner over to their house to share with them the next day. So, in between making Christmas cookies for Santa, Christmas Eve also involved baking bread and making a lasagna to bake the next day!

That evening we went to Willowbrook to see friends (and family!) we haven't seen for a while - some of them a LONG while! That was nice, and was followed by a stop at another family's house for a late night Christmas Eve party! Was nice to hang out with them for a couple hours. We stayed longer than we wanted to, but that was due to caring for one of our friends' sick kids. Long story. Long night. :-) We didn't get home, and get the kids in bed, until midnight!

We weren't totally done with Christmas and Birthday preparations by Midnight, so... we were both up till 2am. For me, that's fine... for Jen? Not so fine. Christmas morning came a little too soon for her. Even though it wasn't till 9am. :-)

Christmas Day was no less crazy. Once we got up, I took a quick shower, and then we all headed downstairs to find some presents left by Santa (alongside the ones we had already put under the tree) and our stockings full of goodies! The kids were fun to watch. :-) After unwrapping all the fun presents, we headed into the kitchen to make a big French Toast breakfast for Ian's birthday! (His request.)

After breakfast, we headed back to the family room for Ian to open his birthday presents. (Yes, he gets LOTS of presents on Dec 25th, and the week before and after that!) We didn't have a cake, so I stuck a candle in a giant navel orange, and we sang for Ian using that. Fun stuff. :-)

After Ian's birthday celebrating, we packed up pretty quickly, and took our big Christmas lunch over to our friends' house to celebrate and eat with them. Spent about two hours or so there. They may be moving soon, so we're enjoying all the time we can get with them. Will be strange if we are not living in the same town...

We packed up after lunch with our friends and headed out to Buffalo to visit with Jen's family. Got there around 4:30 or so and got right to eating! (Yes, you're right... that IS a lot of eating...) It was a great meal, and a fun time with Jen's family. Her oldest brother and family were not there, but there were plenty of people to go around and we had a great time giving and receiving gifts... and eating taco dip! (One of my favorites...) :-)

We left around 8:30 or so, putting us back home at 10pm. We were BEAT from the past three days. Jen was exhausted for sure. The kids were pooped. Most slept the whole way home. But not Kirsten. She sang Christmas songs with Dad most of the time. :-) SO CUTE!!!

But we weren't done.

Wednesday morning was very busy for me! I did sleep in, but once I got up I was on the phone, IM, and e-mailing. Plenty of Boxing Day business I guess! I was also making bread because some other friends were coming over for a late lunch/early dinner. And the best part? They were bringing lasagna! Funny. I made/brought lasagna for some other friends, and then we had different friends do the same for us! Give and you shall receive. Or something like that. :-)

We had a great time with them, and enjoyed all the good food. The really funny part was they came at around 3:30, and with the short days and all, when our friends left at 6pm, it felt like bedtime. BUT IT CERTAINLY WAS NOT! So, we didn't know what to do with ourselves :-) The kids helped clean up, then watched some movies with Mom while Dad spent about TWO HOURS catching up on our finances! Crazy!

That brings us to today. And actually... it has been a pretty normal day so far. :-)

A great, fun, fabulous Christmas and Ian's birthday in 2007. Hope yours was as well!

Chickens

We had dinner with some friends tonight who are back from Mozambique where they have been missionaries for quite a long while. It was a great night of good food and just enjoying time together.

Speaking of food, the conversation turned to food at one point. We began talking about how you make a nice grilled chicken salad in Mozambique. It's not as easy as just going to the grocery store.

"First you have to kill the chicken!" said our African friend, to which we all laughed. She continued, "Oh, but first, you have to catch the chicken!!!" We laughed even harder.

Without missing a beat, her husband - the more seasoned veteran of life in Africa chimed in, "First... you have to find the chicken."

At that point I just lost it and said, "THAT is going on my blog tonight!"

So far in life, I have not had to FIND my food. :-)

It's Fun To Pretend

Yesterday was the last day of the season for our most favoritist ice cream spot, Chill & Grill. (You may have heard me mention them a time or two...)

We have been increasing our visits over the last week or so, just to make sure we get in our fill for the winter shut down season. It's been fun. Even met up with some friends there Saturday night (first timers!) and sat out in 60 degree weather at night eating ice cream! (I loved it, but everyone else was a bit chilly!) :-)

Well, the plan was to go up Sunday evening, just before close (which was 9pm) and get a final bit of ice cream for the season. We were even to be joined by a couple different families, but one by one... they decided they could not come. So, when it was just us, I decided I would call just to make sure that they were still open.

Good thing I did.

They ran out of ice cream, and CLOSED by 7pm!!! :-(

As you can imagine, this was heartbreaking to the children, who had been looking forward to ending our day - and the Chill & Grill season - with a last bit of ice cream. It was pretty heart-breaking for Dad, too!

So, that's when I decided we could just pretend! I set up our little bench at the doorway from our kitchen to our dining room, and made up a little sign which I stuck to the wall next to the door, and pretended to be Chill & Grill! The kids played right along and we all had a great time ordering, serving, and EATING ice cream! Even used the (HUGE) Chill & Grill portions! (I had to finish most of the kids' ice cream...)

I think Ian said something like, "It's amazing what you can do with some paper, and a marker, and a little tape!" He's right! It's fun to pretend, and we had a grand time doing it last night!

Might just do it again! :-)

Changing Seasons

Fall has begun, and that means that we're coming to the very end of the ice cream season. It's been a good one. Many visits from the Chis. My Dad has been up several times for ice cream. Friends from all over the region have met us there - including a surprise visit from our friends the Towners one night! - and we of course did our annual concert there with our friends in the band Sound Mind.

It's been a good year.

But now, this Sunday (Sep 30)... Chill & Grill will be closing for the season. :-( :-(

We'll be heading up there for sure on Sunday, and maybe tomorrow night as well. Been fitting in a few more ice cream trips this week, knowing it will be closing again for 5 months or so. Too bad. I would still get ice cream in the winter...

:-)

If you're a fan, come out today or tomorrow and grab the last remnants of the ice cream! (Flavor selection is rather slim these days!) We'll be there Sunday for sure!

Also, be sure to check out the Chill & Grill Fan Page I created on Facebook!

Looking forward to Sunday, and already looking forward to next season!

I do love me some ice cream... :-)

The Streak Has Ended

As you may recall, I spent every day of national ice cream month (July) eating ice cream! Well, that carried over to August... and even into September! But, with a busy day at the Bills game yesterday, and no ice cream in the fridge last night... the streak ended at 70 days. I fully expect to begin another one sometime soon. But for now, the streak has ended. Just thought I should let you know. :-)

Ice Cream Record Books?

I have noticed recently that my 31 straight days of ice cream in the month of July was not really that hard to do. Without really trying, I have added now 19 more days to that total (and maybe a few more from before!)

On July 4th I told some friends that I wanted to eat ice cream every day for National Ice Cream Month (July) and one friend was incredulous that I had already had ice cream four days in a row. "I've never done that!" said he.

I now officially have more than a dozen times over. :-)

I'll let you know when I miss a day.

Blueberry Hill

Isn't there a song about blueberry hill? I know it was the name of the hill behind the main part of Mountainview Christian Camp where I have spent several weeks of several summers of my life. But tonight, though there weren't really any noticeable hills... I'd say we visited THE blueberry hill!

We're in Clarence at the moment, visiting with Jen's mom & dad. The kids love visits to Grandma & Grandpa's and this time, Mom & Dad stayed too! :-) We went to the Bills game last night - it was a blast, read about it here - and then today we played football, visited with some friends, saw another friend off on a trip to Africa, played more football, and then took a trip down to East Otto, NY to Burdick's Blueberries.

The experience begins by heading as far into the middle of nowhere as you possibly can. Then, once you're there, you "check in" by weighing your blueberry containers before they are filled... whereupon you are whisked away in a giant blue pickup truck (further into the middle of nowhere) to your row of blueberry bushes. The help walk you to a specific spot and tell you to begin picking here and go that direction, making sure to strip off all the ripe berries.

(Blueberry picking is serious business!) :-)

We had a blast! Picked (and ATE!) blueberries for about an hour I'd say! When we got there, one branch of one of our assigned bushes had bent to the ground - perfect for Julia!!! And our little Julia LOVES fruit!!! So, she stood there and picked and ate blueberries - at least 2 or 3 dozen - for the first 20 minutes or so while we picked elsewhere. Too cute!

After the big blueberry fest was over, we rode the blue pickup back to the home base and weighed in. We had almost 20 POUNDS of blueberries!!! Ha! That's a LOT of blueberries!!! They taste great, and we're going to be having lots of great blueberry-related foods for a while. I guess they freeze pretty well, too.

So, after we left the super fun blueberry place, we shared a meal at Ponderosa together. That used to be a more frequent outing for the Walker clan, but I think size and grandkids growing up have been factors in making it a much more rare - and special - occasion. We had a very nice meal (still full now!) and then came back home.

Tomorrow we spend the day at the fair. Jen's dad is preaching there in the morning, and we're hoping to get some fun in either before it rains, or in between the rain drops. Wish us luck. (It's looking pretty rainy...)

Much more to come here at GregsHead.net. I'm wishing I had wireless internet... :-) BUT, I am typing this blog from my in-laws' computer (a Windows computer) using Safari! It looks amazing! It's almost... almost close to what I would see on my Mac! Now that's impressive!!

Until after the crazy weekend...

SuperCaliFragiGenerous

A couple weeks ago, we were arranging to spend a kidless evening with some friends of ours, and they ended up offering to take us out for a special dinner. They know that's rare for us, and wanted to treat us to that. That was super generous. We had it planned for a while, so we had time to really look forward to it.

Well, as the day approached, they also learned that we are in a really tough spot financially. Business has been slower than ever, and we're trying to figure out what to do with all of the bills that remain at a steady pace, despite the decreased pace of our income. They offered to just have us over for dinner, and make a donation to our overdue bills fund! That was super-duper generous! But I figured, the night out with them would be special for Jen (and hopefully them, too!) and whatever they might be able to give us wouldn't cover the bills we owe anyway... so... we stuck to our original plan.

Well lemme tell you... it was a fun night!

We went to the Outback Steakhouse, and we got... you guessed it... STEAK! Lots of it! It was a fantastic meal! Great time with our friends. Super fun. But we weren't done!! They treated us to dessert at Champps, a sports bar/restaurant that has an ENORMOUS ice cream cake/pie dessert. The Mile High Ice Cream Pie, or something like that. So we finished off that tower of frozen greatness (well, mostly I did...) and that was all just fantastic. We love hanging out with these friends, and they were just being super-dee-duper generous... it was so crazy and cool.

THEN...

They topped off the night by saying they would still like to help us out with some money! Seriously. That was SuperCaliFragiGenerous!! I mean... not only did they treat us to one of the biggest eating-out feasts we have ever had (maybe THE biggest!), but then they gave us a check!?? They don't have a ton of money either... they are also paying down debt. Amazing.

It was so cool, I made up the word SuperCaliFragiGenerous for it. :-) (Well, mostly made up...)

So thanks to you, generous friends. Your kindness and generosity made for a super fun memory, and will certainly help us in paying our bills. Muchas gracias!

It's Tea Time Again

When my Mom (who is not an avid reader of GregsHead.net...) heard the story of my recent teapot neglect, she asked if I had gotten a new teapot. I had scoped out the options at Wal-Mart, but they were either more pricey than I had anticipated, or too cheap. So, as of yet, I had not. That was the answer she was looking for. :-)

Surprisingly enough... she actually had an extra teapot. Yes, if you know my Mom... that is really not a surprise. :-) She really has an "extra" everything I think. It's quite fascinating. And quite cool for me!

So now, the teapot you see above is sitting on my stove, and has made my first cup of Earl Grey (sipping as I type now, actually)...

Jen's favorite part? It's brown. For some reason, Brown is the new favorite around here.

So, all are happy that a new teapot has come to our home!

Dolled-Up Food

It really just started out as an attempt to get a nice healthy snack around midnight. I had some carrots, with a nice dill dip I made. Then tried some potato chips in that dip, too. (OK, that wasn't healthy...) Then I just really wanted something sweet...

Fruit! We have grapes! So, I got some of those, then noticed the strawberries. Mmmmm... strawberries. So, I got out the container, and decided to cut some up.

Here's where it got interesting. ;-)

So, since I was already preparing the snack (instead of just eating it) I decided to spruce it up a bit. I got out a little plate for my beheaded strawberries. Then I remembered the hot fudge in the fridge!!! So I got out a little bowl, and popped the jar of fudge in the microwave. Less than a minute later, I had some warm, flowing fudge!

After pouring the hot fudge in the little bowl, it still needed something more. Oh yeah!!! I remembered that whipped cream in the fridge!!!!

So, after I whipped up the Cool Whip and put a nice little dollop on top of the hot fudge, I realized that I had made quite a little creation here. :-) I do love to make my food look good!

Not the best photo, but wanted to share what I saw before I devoured it. They were tasty!!!

Ice Cream Update - Final Edition

If you can believe it... July has come to an end! It has been quite a run of ice cream consumption for me! Much of it has been enjoyed with my family, and many friends. Here's the final rundown of the places when and where said treats were consumed...

• 7/22 - I am pretty certain that we ate at Chill & Grill with friends on this day...
  
  
• 7/23 - I may have gotten more Chill & Grill this day. And, continued to enjoy the ice cream in our freezer!
  
  
• 7/24 - Probably just ice cream from the freezer this day...
  
  
• 7/25 - Bought up several containers of Edy's Grand Ice Cream, including one of my favorites, Cherry Chocolate Chip!
  
  
• 7/26 - Got some ice cream from Chill & Grill again, and this time free of charge! Thanks, Jeff!
  
  
• 7/27 - We ate some Abbott's Frozen Custard at Bill Gray's in Henrietta, NY this day. With the Drakes!
  
  
• 7/28 - Got some more Chill & Grill with LOTS of friends on Saturday night!
  
  
• 7/29 - Chill & Grill in the afternoon with some new friends, and then plenty of Edy's from the freezer!!
  
  
• 7/30 - Finished off the Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream... several helpings of ice cream on this day! (Month is almost over!!!)
  
  
• 7/31 - Had ice cream with the Shimps at Dari-an in Farmington, NY. Got banana ice cream on a cone. A perfect ending to a perfect 31 days of ice cream!

Believe it or not, I am not in the least bit sick of ice cream. This was not a hard thing for me to do! In fact, I'm looking forward to our next visit to Chill & Grill, or the grocery for some good ice cream. I am hoping we are one of the eleven luck folks who will win some free ice cream from Turkey Hill!!! One person gets a year's supply... ten people get a month's supply! Fantastic!

Of course, I will let you know here at GH if we are selected as one of the winners! :-)

Thanks for following along on my ice cream journey this month! I'm sure it's the beginning of a long-standing tradition! :-)

The Weekend That Was, Is, And Is To Come

Usually I don't tell about a busy weekend in the middle of it, but I thought I'd make an exception today. I told a friend via e-mail (actually, it was on Facebook) that this weekend was going to be packed full... and I just wanted to write it down so I could remember what a crazy weekend the fifth weekend of July 2007 was. (And I can use this as a sort of "To Do" list for the things that we have yet to do ...) :-)

Last night I stayed up pretty late working on the song set for Sunday morning (read below) and chatting with various folks on the internet. (Why was everyone else on so late??) I was also doing a little prep work for a possible interview with Brian Moorman, the Buffalo Bills punter. All of this while knowing the day today would begin quite early. It didn't matter... something kept me going. The tasks, yes, but somehow I was just awake.

I finally hit the sack around 3:45 or so, and just felt really awake. So, sometime after 4:00 I finally drifted off to sleep, only to hear the shrill sound of my alarm at 8:00am. It seemed like mere moments. :-)

I think I hit snooze. :-) Then I rolled out of bed around 8:15 or so and tried to wake myself up with some tea and reading emails and blogs. (Yes, believe it or not, some had been updated between 4:00am and 8:00am...) I did a little more prep for the potential interview with the Bills punter, and got a call around 8:50am from our friends for whom I had so early arisen. They needed help moving, so I offered to help before training camp began that afternoon.

Well, turns out they had packed their computers already, but had forgotten to check the emails for where to get the moving truck. :-) So, my friend joined me at our breakfast table for a quick check of his email, and then was off to get the truck with his wife. Good thing we were running a little behind, though. I had a few errands to run.

At 9:30 am, I headed out on foot to get the song sheet prepared the night before to the church on the corner. I delivered that, then headed to our library to drop off a video. Off to the post office next (a few blocks away) to check for a hosting payment that has STILL not arrived. Box was empty. (Except for a decent Pizza Hut coupon...) So, scratch that trip to the bank I had planned.

Instead I just headed straight over to our friends' house to start loading up the truck. Except... no truck. They hadn't left right when I thought they had, so it was going to be a while. Already 10:00, I decided to walk back and check on Jen. That was probably good as when I got back, I was able to reply to a phone message regarding a meeting later on that day to get our new Buffalo Bills Review t-shirts!

(Are you still with me?) :-)

So after about 30 minutes at home, I headed back to the moving house and the truck was there! We managed to move a decent amount of boxes and firmly entrenched furniture. So, even though I had to leave around noon, I felt like my time had been at least slightly useful to them. That was nice.

When I got home, I helped get lunch ready (at least helped Jen decide what to warm up from the fridge!) and showered, then checked on the interview one more time. It just felt rushed in the middle of everything else we were trying to do - so I decided to postpone it. I eventually e-mailed my Bills contact and asked to set it up for later.

But we still had plenty to do.

1:30pm, all are fed, most is ready for the trip to BILLS TRAINING CAMP!!! We were to meet our friends the Drakes there (he co-hosts the Buffalo Bills Review with me) as well as that t-shirt delivery guy. That all went off without (much of) a hitch. We ended up even parking in the VIP parking lot, since we looked sort of official. Yes, it was a bending of the rules (I need an official pass to do that) but we were treated kindly by an understanding parking lot attendant.

Bills camp was fun! Weather was decent (not too hot!) and it was just SO FUN to see the Buffalo Bills right in FRONT of us again!!!! It was a relatively light workout, but was still fun to watch. Some good plays made.

In addition to the football, I was there on official business. A friend loaned me his iPod recording device (you stick it in your iPod) and so I went around to various fans asking them if they'd like to be on our show. A few politely declined, but most said, "Sure!" It was a lot of fun. Really perfect stuff for our show, which we say is "The Show By Bills Fans, For Bills Fans". It even says that on our shirts. :-)

After camp was over we headed out for some dinner together at a nearby McDonald's. It has a great PlayPlace, so that was the perfect choice. I had a fantastic Asian salad, by the way. Hadn't ever had their fancy salads. Marie got one, and it looked good... so I did too :-) Thanks, Marie! :-)

The PlayPlace was a good idea... but... it got WAY too loud. So we decided to hang out a bit more, and finish the afternoon/evening with some ice cream!!! (Yes, in fact, it IS National Ice Cream Month...) We got some Abbott's custard (a Rochester favorite) at Bill Gray's (add that to the ice cream list for the month!) and then finally parted ways as all of our children were just about completely exhausted.

I was getting there, too!

But one of the coolest parts of the day happened AFTER all of the other cool stuff! As we left the restaurant, it had just finished raining, and the sun was coming out again. Looking toward the eastern sky, there was a humongous FULL rainbow from one side of the sky to the other. Even a bit of a double rainbow on the left side. It was just fantastic!

BUT WE WEREN'T DONE!

As we drove home... another rainbow appeared in the Eastern sky... this one WAY more colorful, brighter, or whatever the proper description is. It was a full rainbow across the sky in front of us. It as quite bold, and just really amazingly beautiful. There was definitely a double rainbow this time. In fact, the double was almost complete! Simply incredible! I think the best rainbow I have ever seen. Certainly none top it. Could only equal it.

After the spectacular shows in the sky, we finally were home... and just got everyone ready for bed. We watched a quick episode of the Little Einsteins, then did baths/showers/etc. Once everyone was in bed, it was time for Dad to make Skyline for tomorrow's lunch, so, Jen & I spent a little time in the kitchen, listening to this week's God Journey podcast as I cooked and cleaned up a bit.

Oh yeah.. did the laundry in there too... :-)

Whew. Glad Friday is over. But there are TWO MORE DAYS!

Quick preview...

• Our friends are bringing their girls over tomorrow so they can have a kidless day to get some final preparations done for a trip to the Dominican Republic coming up soon. We can't support their trip financially, but we can make their prep a bit easier by taking their kids! Plus, we love having them come over and visit... :-)
  
  
• Speaking of visits... our friends the Falkes will be dropping by for lunch (SKYLINE CHILI!!) in the late morning. They head to Canada fairly soon to begin working with a church there... so it's one last good-bye before they head about 3000 miles to our west. :-)
  
  
• After a day with our friends' girls, we'll head over to Chill & Grill together before they all go back home. Haven't gotten to do that all Ice Cream Month with them, so that will be very nice. :-)
  
  
• Sunday morning we'll be providing the music for the "Worship In The Park" service put on by First Baptist Church in Palmyra. They asked us if we'd do that, and we happily agreed. Nice folks. Will be kinda cool singing outside and stuff. Plus... they're feeding us, so... it was pretty much a no-brainer. ;-)
  
  
• Sunday afternoon we'll be meeting some clients/friends of mine who are on a tour of the northeast from their home in Texas. It's a New England vacation, and we are one of the stops! :-) It will be great to meet them, even if it's only a brief visit. I designed the site EzzoTruth.com for them. It will be nice to finally meet them. :-)

Oh my goodness golly this is long! I think I will stop for now. I'll of course share any stories that deviate from the planned activities listed above. :-)

Ice Cream Update - Week 3

A friend asked yesterday what we've been up to this summer. I feel like we've been busy, but for whatever reason when he asked that was all I could remember... being busy. The only specifics I could remember were hanging out with friends and eating ice cream!!! Ha! That has kinda been a theme of this month...

Here's an update on the ice cream consumption for week three of July. I have eaten ice cream every day, but I'll just do the highlights here. If there's no highlight, I just had some ice cream from the freezer, homemade or store bought.

• 7/15 - We only ate once at Chill & Grill with the Chis. The first time did us in! Oh, well, maybe those homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, too? :-)
  
  
• 7/16 - I tried Perry's White Lightning for the first time on Monday night. One of my new top five favorites!!
  
  
• 7/17 - SUPER FUN homemade ice cream party with friends. I made a gallon of vanilla, and a half gallon of strawberry on Monday night, and then Tuesday night we ate a lot! There were tons of great toppings too! It was a feast! I had three and a half bowls!!!
  
  
• 7/18 & 7/19 - Just a little ice cream from the freezer was the treat for these days!
  
  
• 7/20 - An impromptu trip to Dari-an in Farmington, NY followed a nice dinner with some friends at our house. I had mango dole-whip (a sort of soft-serve sherbet). Tasty!
  
  
• 7/21 - Our first visit to Coldstone Creamery in Pittsford, NY was the ice cream treat for yesterday! (Though I did finish off some of the homemade strawberry later that night...) Coldstone has some great inclusions (the stuff you mix into your ice cream). I had mint mint chocolate chocolate chip. And it really was that. :-)

Believe it or not, I really have eaten ice cream (and sometimes a LOT of it) every day this month! 21 days and counting!

Ice Cream Celebrations...

It's probably starting to feel like all I do around here is talk about ICE CREAM! Well, for this month, I guess that's true :-) It is National Ice Cream Month, and I have had ice cream EVERY DAY this month. 19 days in a row, and counting!

For tonight, we made a gallon of vanilla ice cream, and about half a gallon of strawberry last night. We'll be bringing the finished product over to our friends' house and enjoying that with them (and some other friends) and using the rest of the strawberry "base"? in a little kids hand-crank ice cream maker to make the rest! Should be fun. :-)

Speaking of fun, I meant to give a little update on how our 10th anniversary of our decision to wed went. It was a nice two day, for the most part. On the 16th, I arranged to take Jen out for a nice lunch, and got her 10 roses in a nice vase for our 10 years. She loves flowers, and we are hardly ever able to get them, so I think that was really special. Cool part was, the flowers arrived at almost the same time as the babysitter! Couldn't have timed it any better!

Previously I had arranged with some other friends to get a little extended time out for the night of the 17th. We got to spend about four hours eating at Olive Garden, doing a little grocery shopping (WITH NO KIDS), and even stopped by a favorite coffee house on the way back to get our kids. It was a nice end to the two-day celebration.

I think it's really cool that Jen and I get to be married. I think it's also cool that we decided to do that in the month of July... NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH! Now every year, we can celebrate that anniversary with one of the best foods ever invented! :-)

Time to head over to the party. More ice cream!!! :-)

Ice Cream Personality?

I took one of the ice cream quizzes linked from the ice cream blog today, and here are the top two results:

Mixed flavors
You are a negotiator. You'll do anything you can to avoid open conflict so you never start quarrels. You will give in when you think it's appropriate but you can be doggedly persistent when you know that justice is on your side.

Chocolate chip
You sincerely believe that everything around you is beautiful, even though other people may not notice. You are a determined person and set high goals for your life.

Jen (and I agree) thinks that the second one is probably more accurate, but I don't just like Chocolate Chip Ice Cream... I like lots of flavors WITH chocolate chips in it!! :-) (As you'll notice from my post yesterday...)

Anyway, take the test yourself if you'd like! And don't forget to comment on the ice cream blog. One lucky July commenter will win a year's supply of Turkey Hill ice cream!! Whoohooo!

Favorite Flavors

Our grocery store had Perry's ice cream (from Akron, NY) on sale last week, so we picked up a couple half gallons. One was a new flavor, White Lightning. It's dark chocolate ice cream, with streaks of white mint goo throughout. I had a dish of it for the first time last night and, it's instantly in my top five favorite flavors! If you have access to Perry's, and your store carries that flavor... go get some!

That got me to thinking about what my favorite flavors are... here's a quick list I came up with: (In no particular order, because really... I like ALL flavors!!!)

• White Lightning from Perrys
  
  
• White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl from Young's. (White chocolate ice cream, with swirls of raspberry goo (what else do you call it?) and chunks of chocolate. It's fantastic!)
  
  
• Cherry Chocolate Chip from Edy's. With Raspberry Chip Royale a close second!
  
  
• Cherry Panda Paws from Perry's. (Little chocolate/cherry cups with swirls of fudge in cherry ice cream!)
  
  
• And I do like a variety of specialty flavors... Perry's Sabres Sundae, Bills Stampede Sundae from Turkey Hill, and any of Edy's specialty flavors (like the Loaded Butterfingers one!!! Awesome!

There's a lot more, but that'll have to do for now. Gotta get outside and get to work! More on that later...

Enjoy your ice cream!

Ice Cream Update: Week 2

The Chis are here. We have already had homemade ice cream and Chill & Grill. (It's National Ice Cream Day, ya know???!!) And I think we're planning to have a bit more before they leave... :-)

Wanted to give you an update on the ice cream consumption for week two of July. Let's see...

• 7/8 - We stopped at Dairy Queen in Medina, Ohio on our trip back from visiting my family. Hawaiian Blizzard!
  
  
• 7/9 - We were tired from our trip, so the best I could do was some Breyer's from the freezer!
  
  
• 7/10 - We had ice cream with some friends at Dairy Ann in Farmington, NY
  
  
• 7/11 - Again, a little ice cream from the freezer was the treat for the day!
  
  
• 7/12 - A tiny treat from Chill & Grill did the trick on Thursday... but of course, had some more from the freezer a bit later!
  
  
• 7/13 - Had some ice cream with fresh raspberries for lunch on Friday!!!
  
  
• 7/14 - Enjoyed some ice cream at Chill & Grill with Friends, and then came home and made about a half-gallon of homemade vanilla ice cream!!!
  
  
• 7/15 - The Chis came over from Buffalo to eat at CHILL & GRILL and we had some home made ice cream cookie sandwiches. (I made the chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and we squeezed some of the homemade ice cream in between two cookies using the ice cream sandwich maker from Pampered Chef. And, I'm thinking we're not DONE!

More to come! There's an entire 16 days left in NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH!!!!!

Making Ice Cream This Month?

If you're planning to make ice cream this month (National Ice Cream Month, don't ya know!) then perhaps a visit to this site would be helpful. Found it linked off of the Turkey Hill Ice Cream blog. Seems like tons and tons of great, helpful ice cream-making information.

Making ice cream is definitely an art. As I have learned from many unsuccessful attempts at doing so. I'm good with food in general... so it's fun when I discover something that is a challenge! Hope to keep improving my ice cream making skills this summer, and I think some stuff on the Ice Cream Recipes.com site might help. :-)

Enjoy your ice cream!

July 4th Adventure Week

When we were on the last leg of our return trip home last night, Jen & I were recalling the several consecutive late nights (and/or full days) we had strung together for our children. We counted three... then four... then... a WEEK. I think it goes back to our big FOOD FEST on July 1st. So far, this July has been packed full of goodness.

You know of the Food Fest, as well as the National Ice Cream Month celebrations. Perhaps you also know of how we celebrated July 4th on July 3rd with Jen's family down by Canandaigua Lake? And perhaps you also know that we drove nearly FIFTY MILES to see fireworks on the real July 4th down in Lima, NY? Good times.

How about how we drove to Springfield, OH - the place of my birth! - on Thursday July 5th, and met up with my Grandma, my Grandma & Grandpa, my Mom & Dad, their friend Paul, my Uncle Jim & Aunt Becky, and my Uncle Jim & Aunt Sara for dinner at Cici's Pizza? And then we went out to see a restoration project my second Uncle Jim (from above) is working on for the Clark County parks... did I mention that? AND THEN we headed down to Grammy & Grandpa's for baths and night time routines... completely exhausted. Once again, good times. :-)

Oh! I know I mentioned the Creation Museum on Friday July 6th... it's created quite a firestorm in the comment section (at least as far as commenting generally goes at GregsHead.net. And, you also know that we went to one of the Esther Price chocolate stores that day, along with Graeter's Ice Cream. But, did I mention that was following some fantastic BBQ ribs, pulled pork, and other such goodies? How about that after that long day, and following baths and bedtime routine (which took longer than it should've thanks to Julia) that Jen & I went out on the town at about 11:15pm or so??? Went to Applebee's for half-price appetizers. :-) Again... good times.

On Seven Seven oh-Seven we once again started out first thing in the morning, just doing a little drive around the countryside. We've heard that Indiana has some fantastic home school regulations (like... they have NONE!) so we have always considered moving down there to be near my family, and free from the more "looking over your shoulder" type of regulations that NY currently has. So, we just wanted to see what those little towns were like. We had a nice lunch at a little diner in a small town of about 5000 people. It was a nice lunch, but not a place we'd want to live. Plus, it was hot. :-) (Big black mark against in my book...) :-) We drove around a bit more, just taking in the scenery, and then headed over to Springfield area for the evening's fun.

We met up with my cousin Jimmie and his wife (didn't get to see their daughter though! she was sleeping!!) :-( We spent 15-20 minutes with them and then headed over to meet our friends at Young's Jersey Dairy. They're headed to Ecuador on Wednesday I believe, so we were glad to get to see them before they head overseas. Spent more time than we expected to with them, after they locked their keys in their car. :-( Not what you want to do on a hot day... but we had a good time, and of course, had some great ice cream!!! Got to feed goats, too.

As July has gone... 07/07/07 was also... good times.

Sunday began early as Julia decided to mostly NOT sleep the night before, and since we were planning to leave early Sunday morning anyway (early for us...) I got up at about 7:30 or so and started getting stuff ready. Thankfully, the kids really were exhausted and I think the younger three took at least two naps each on the trip home! That was really nice. For everyone. We also stopped along the way for Skyline Chili (At 11am! That was funny!) and Dairy Queen! Also found a nice McDonald's playplace up in NY for dinner. It was a nice trip. Even got to stop by Willowbrook and drop off some goodies for our friend Leah. Good times.

That brings us to this morning. Have you noticed that sometimes when kids are tired, they don't actually sleep as much as when life is more "normal"? EVERYONE was up early this morning, which is not the best way to start a morning (for me, I guess) but, that's how it started. I walked to the post office to get a check that I needed to deposit in the bank. Man, it was steaming hot even before 9am today! Then I got home and noticed we didn't have milk yet... so, off to our grocery store I went. :-) I was a nice dad and brought home donuts for the kids for breakfast, too. :-)

So, it has been an adventure everyday since the start of July. I'm hoping that 07/09/07 will be a bit back to normal. I think it just might be.

Pilgrimage to a Chocolate Mecca

I would not be doing the day justice if I somehow failed to mention our visit to Esther Price Chocolates in Centreville, OH! Talk about a chocolate lover's paradise :-) There were FREE SAMPLES of this fantastic chocolate! And boxes and BOXES of it EVERYWHERE. I said to Jen at one point, "I have no will power in this place." :-) (And I was not exaggerating!!!)

It was WAY too fun! I loved it!

I'll post some photos from the event a bit later. For now... it's time to sleep!

Ice Cream Update

As you know from previous entries, July is national ice cream month, and we've been doing our part to celebrate that! Here's a quick run-down on the month so far.

• July 1 - We made home made ice cream with friends (Philadelphia-style Vanilla, and Strawberry Sherbet)
  
  
• 7/2 - Made some more home made ice cream, and ate some of the previous day's ice cream!
  
  
• 7/3 - Finished the home made ice cream off! Mmmmmm!!!
  
  
• 7/4 - Went out with friends for some home made ice cream at Sharks Custard & Candy in Bloomfield, NY! (Then I had a tad more Breyer's when I got home...) :-)
  
  
• 7/5 - Travel day... had a Frosty at Wendy's (Does that count?) and then stopped at my Dad's favorite ice cream spot, The Frosty Eagle in Bellbrook, OH!
  
  
• 7/6 - Got some more home made ice cream at Graeter's Ice Cream in Centreville, OH! Great "inclusions"! (Big chunks of chocolate!) AND... we even got to eat some Astronaut Ice Cream at the Creation Museum today!
  
  
• 7/7 - Meeting some friends at Young's Jersey Dairy for some great home made ice cream! And Young's is not just an ice cream place, it's an experience! You can feed/pet the animals, play on the farm toys, even play a round of mini-golf if you want! It's a childhood, nostalgic stop during National Ice Cream month, in Springfield, OH (really, Yellow Springs, OH.)

More to come...

Chill & Grill x2

Our friend Chi reminded me that I never shared the story of another "food fest" day (with food (mostly) provided by Chill & Grill) just a couple weeks ago. June 16th, I believe. It was certainly akin to FOOD FEST I, detailed below.

The Chis arrived in time for lunch, so they got their pugs out, we got our kids in the stroller, and off we went on the 1-mile trek to Chill & Grill!

We went all out. Chi & I got Monster Burgers. There were lots of fries. Some chicken. Probably some other greasy stuff.... it was fantastic! AND THEN, the Chis treated us to ice cream afterward. Chi ordered a Large. Only the second person I've seen even ORDER a large. And he finished it. AND this was after a 1-lb Monster Burger. Nice job, Chi!

BUT there was more!

We went back home and just hung out for the afternoon... even got to play a round of the Hulk board game! I won! HULK SMASH!!!!

As it was getting toward dinner time... we decided to make a nice waffle dinner! It was awesome! Waffles fresh off the grill. It was rather surprising we had room, after our big Chill & Grill excursion.

We hung out in the yard a bit more... but even more surprising... we decided we hadn't had ENOUGH ice cream... so the Chis treated us to ANOTHER ROUND of Chill & Grill!!!! Ha! And yes, Chi ordered ANOTHER LARGE. And finished it. He is an eating machine!

Nice work, Chi. But next time you need to eat two Monster Burgers, too! Whoohoo!

Food Fest I

Yes, I know yesterday was Canada Day (I believe it is "observed" today), but I believe that July 1st may now become the official day of FOOD FEST.

Some have called it Eat Fest, and yesterday I first thought it could be called GlutFest (as in "gluttonous") but I think I have settled on FOOD FEST.

And, just like the Superbowl, I think we'll keep track of this (hopefully) annual event with a roman numeral. Thus, yesterday's soirée was FOOD FEST I.

I can't believe I am actually eating anything today... :-)

Our first guests arrived around 11:30 or so, and we planned to eat lunch at 1ish (once the other guests arrived). So... as my mom was always good at doing, I had some goodies ready to snack on sitting on the table when they got there - and snack we did. There was fresh watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries. We had sweet tea, unsweetened tea. We had celery and blue cheese, and added some baby carrots. And all this was just to munch on before lunch!

I fired up the grill at about five till one, and cooked up about 20 hamburgers for 6 adults and 9 children. (Two of those being one-year-olds). Add to that the potato salad, some fantastic apple salad with a hint of lime, a variety of chips, and of course the selection of about a dozen things you could put on your burger... including bacon! Whoohoo!

But... as if that were not enough...

We moved the propane tank from the grill to the fryer once the burgers were done, and I started heating up the oil for CHICKEN WINGS. Now, I don't like to toot my own horn, but I used to think that I made the best wing sauce in Buffalo... and I'm still pretty good at cookin' up a batch of wings. In fact, our friend Scott said they were the best I've ever made and I think he's eaten at least 500 of my wings. (Plus, he makes some great wings himself!) :-)

So, we cooked up about 6 pounds of those (leaving 2 more pounds for fresh wings later) and had those after a couple hamburgers each (and all the other goodies!) ... it was a food fest alright!

BUT WE WEREN'T DONE.

Chicken wings were the "specialty" of the day... until we found out it was National ICe Cream Month! So, we decided to make some home made ice cream! Having recently attended a class on making ice cream... I put my newly acquired skills to good use and made the most AMAZING homemade ice cream I have ever made! Maybe the best I've ever tasted! It turned out perfect! So we sampled a bit, then threw it in the freezer to "ripen". (That's the step where the ice cream hardens.)

We did go for a swim with the kids (at least, me and Dave did...) so we stopped eating for just about an hour, but then it was back to the house for the ice cream, more wings, and general nibbling of all the food that was STILL left.

We ate from around noon till 7:30 or so... with almost no break. Non stop FOOD FEST. Awesome. :-)

There was quite a bit of food left over. We had some for lunch today. And will for dinner. And might tomorrow. :-) But we certainly had our share of food at the innaugural FOOD FEST I.

Check back in a year for the report from FOOD FEST II! :-)

National Ice Cream Month!

July is national Ice Cream month, and I got an e-mail today from Turkey Hill dairy (yes, I subscribe to an ice cream newsletter... that might tell you something about how I feel about ice cream....) announcing a give away in July of FREE ICE CREAM. (One winner gets a year's supply, four more get a month's supply.) Just stop by their blog every day in July, leave a comment, and you'll have a chance to win.

Here are the links:

• Website
• RSS
• E-mail Newsletter

How much ice cream can you eat in 31 days? I guess we'll find out...