Things that explode if heated on the stove-top...

Luckily, no one was hurt.

Dessert Overlord

Up until last week, the only thing I ever wanted to be a (benign) dictator of was my own bookclub.  Other than that, I'm pretty much a big believer in democracy in almost all aspects of my life.

However, late last week I was appointed Cranberry Sauce and Dessert "overlord "of Thanksgiving Dinner.  At first I was skeptical, but now I see many possibilities regarding this.  Cranberry Sauce?  We have reason to believe many of the people at our table may not ever have had cranberry sauce at their Thanksgiving Dinner so I'm thinking of either serving basic cranberry sauce (maybe with orange, haven't decided) or making two 1/2 batches of cranberry sauce. One traditional and the other with jalapeno.

As far as dessert goes: I haven't quite narrowed down what I want to do.  I could do the Mrs. Smith and Dairy Godmother route.  I could be mean and offer my guests hot tamales and chocolate bars as desserts, but I don't think they would ever let me forget that.  I'm guessing I'll do a traditional pumpkin pie, a not traditional pie and then maybe something else as surprise..but I'm not sure what.

Not Rocky Mountain Oysters

Back when I was 12 I had steamed oysters for the first time.  My dad bought a dozen or so at Pikes Peak and my Aunt Mary Helen (and my mom or dad) steamed them.  They were horrible.  Texture, taste...no redeeming value.  Then there was oyster stew...milk (sometimes potatoes) and oysters.....worst soup ever. I also had raw oysters twice...both times were traumatic.

Well, when I was in Seattle in April, I discovered that oysters don't completely suck.  Not completely.
So when we were traveling this weekend I ordered fried oysters. Twice.  And I liked them (mostly.)

Joy (me) with Buffalo Style Fried Oysters. The Pumpkin is for decoration.

I also found that when oysters are fried, sprinkled with buffalo sauce and served with blue cheese...I don't hate them.  I also have swayed Kelli over to the "Oysters do not completely suck" Team. We wear our nebulousness regarding oysters with pride. 

Val

I think I mentioned that my dad lost one of his closest friends on Thursday. Val was like a brother to my dad and an Uncle to my brothers and I.  So, rather than type anything, I'm just going to leave a link to his daughter in-law's blog that she published on Friday.

Here you go:
http://onafricanthyme.blogspot.com/2012/11/val-j-mortenson.html

Delmarva Trip Map

Here's a map of the trip we just took.  

  I'll finish up day 3 tomorrow (or sometime this week).

Delmarva Trip Day 2

We (Joy-me and Kelli-Joy's Best Friend) woke up early-ish on Sunday to the sound of the ocean outside the hotel room.  That's right, the bonus of staying in Virginia Beach is there's a Federal Employee/Military (even for off-duty travel) discount and it's off-season. Totally affordable to stay on the boardwalk!

We headed for the Del Marva peninsula and drove over the 23.7 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  While not as striking as the more well-known Bay Bridge, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel was cool to cross (and I bet they see whales off of it in the winter).  You see, we were headed to Chincoteague, Virginia and spend a hour or two doing their local museum scavenger hunt throughout the exhibits. Yes, there's a bucket with a B in that museum and a porpoise spine cane.  After scavenger hunt fun, we went out to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and drove out to the beach.  After building a sandcastle while flying a kite (kelli) and reading a book while convincing my lungs they like traveling (me), we had lunch.

This was a traffic circle two weeks ago. Kelli shouldn't be taller than that sign.

Kelli wanted a photo with her kite. At Chincoteague.

2 weeks ago this was a parking lot.  Sandy left a whole lot of sand in her wake. 

Cormorant at Chincoteague.

Then we spent the rest of the daylight identifying birds (Ruddy duck!) and I played peek-a-boo with a great blue heron. That evening we had seafood (again) and I decided since I was in the oyster capital of the world, I would try them again.  They didn't completely suck although the rest of the meal was sub-par.  Back at the hotel, we started watching The Notebook (neither of us had seen it before) but soon switched to a Lifetime Christmas movie.  Making fun of movies?  a past-time we both enjoy.

Del Marva Trip Day 1

Saturday morning, Kelli and I headed to Virginia Beach.  We had the idea of doing the DelMarva Loop...heading to Virginia Beach and (finally!!) taking the southern bridge to the Del Marva peninsula.  What we didn't know is that we would end up at three national wildlife refuges (Go FWS).  So after stopping for diet coke next to the scariest truckstop ever and finding the one toll road in Richmond (here's hoping we don't get a ticket for accidentally not paying.), we made our way to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge is completely undeveloped beach that starts south of Virginia Beach to the North Carolina Border.  I really want to walk to North Carolina someday, but i'm not sure if I ever will.  However, what we did see was at least 3 or 4 dolphin pods and maybe 30 or so dolphins. We saw dolphins jumping, twirling, and I even saw a tail (Kelli missed it) not far from shore.  However Dolphins are pretty much impossible to photograph with even my "nice" camera, but I did get a fin of one dolphin in a shot (I tried twice because dolphins are super tricky to photograph).  After dinner I tried Sheepshead for the first time.  Although a sheepshead has a face even his/her mother doesn't love, it's a succulent, tender fish that tastes a little like scallops.  

Sheepshead closeup found on the Internet. 

A montage of  my photos.  If you look closely in that middle picture, you can see a dolphin dorsal fin.

Vermont Roundys

Last month I picked up my parents in Philadelphia and we spent a week driving around New England.  Our first stop was to visit Rockingham, Vermont where her great-great-great grandfather, Shadrach Roundy was born and lived until he was fifteen.  None of us had ever been to Vermont and we were impressed with the state.  Here's a couple of pictures my dad took in Rockingham.

We spent quite a bit of time in the cemetery looking for Roundy headstones.  Uriah Roundy, Shadrach's father, was buried in this cemetery, but we couldn't find the gravestone.  We think his family didn't have enough money for a slate gravestone so his grave is no longer marked.  There's a gap next to the headstone below where Uriah may be buried.

Captain John Roundy-He's a Revolutionary War Veteran. I believe this is Uriah's brother, but FamilySearch hasn't been cleaned up to tell for certain.  

The Meetinghouse in Rockingham, Vermont.  Shadrach and his family attended this building.  It's on the Historical Register.

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ReEvaluate

This morning I received news that a family friend had passed away.  He was like a brother to my dad, and one of his son's is my "other" sibling. Needless to say, today has been a day of introspection and memories.    

Fatigue

So, the Presidential Election is finally over. Finally!  

Now you'll never Know

I was going to post a picture of my "I voted" sticker, but I may have misplaced it.  Oh well, it's been a long day.

Art

On Saturday Kelli and I went to the National Gallery after eating the election burgers at Good Stuff Eatery.

Guess what?  The Mary Matalin won.  The James Carville?  Just had this odd "fried" taste to it.

I've found that the best time of the year to hit up the Smithsonians in DC is Saturdays in the late fall and winter.  We were headed to the Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the National Gallery.  However, I'm pretty sure we went to the West building first so we could ride through the lighted walk-way.
The Lichtenstein exhibit was interesting.  I'm still not quite sure what to think of his art..but I like the fact that his made me question what is art...just like Warhol's work does at times.

One of the Lichtensteins we saw. 

Cheesy

So, I've read that making Mozzarella cheese is really easy to do.  At first, I couldn't figure out why I would want to make cheese...but I kept thinking it might be kind of fun.  Well, it's easy to do and takes about 1/2 hour.  I was sure my first batch would fail or not turn out well (that's what I read), but mine is edible and not bad at all.

Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Pumpkin..

I first saw this idea on Martha Stewart's website a few years ago.  This year I decided to gather the supplies and make my own little undead pumpkins.  Here's two of the three little pumpkins I carved.  

The Election

So, I've been so ready for this election to be over that I've been looking ahead to the Inauguration.   Will the weather be cold?  Will there be a concert a few days before?  You know, the important questions.

Hallo-Hurrication

So, we never lost power during Hurricane Sandy.  The lights did flicker once when a transformer blew, but it wasn't our apartment building's transformer.  That being said, I've heard many people in DC say, "we are so lucky."  Everyone is thinking about those up north who bore the brunt of the storm and wondering what can be done to help.

Last night I walked through the neighborhood to watch the little kids trick-or-treat.  There were less people out this year, and some people didn't bother to put the Halloween decorations back up, but it was still fun watching the kids and seeing the houses.