Smile!

Last year my school photo was horrible (yes, teachers have to take them each year, too). I was in a terrible mood, and my fake, half-smile proved it.

I have read that if you want to take a good picture, then you should think of something that makes you laugh right before the camera clicks. We had picture day at the high school last Monday, and I was on the lookout for something to make me smile.

I didn't have to look long.

Charlotte's school has a counter full of free books. We walk by them every moring on our way to the coat hooks

On Monday morning I spotted this book. (See what I did there?) Jackpot!

I'm not going to make fun of sick children, but there are a few laughs inside.

This doctor had great advice for Amanda's mom, but she couldn't hear him because of the way he held the phone.

I know that Peter and his dad are going to the doctor, but who got locked in the garage?

What a safe school! The office has posted warning signs that the School Fair may contain clowns. Gummo says, "Stay away, kids!"

The main problem with this teacher's poster is counting. I see: step a, step 1, step 5, step 4, step 6, step 7. 

I would imagine that this teacher is also on a step.

I had my picture taken later that morning. When the school photographer used her fist to demonstrate how I should tilt my head, I thought about that doctor talking to his hand, and I giggled.

The photographer said, "Nice smile!" when she was done, so we'll have to see how my picture turns out.

August Rewind

We got the Howtoons book from the library. Char read through all of the projects, and she decided that she wanted to make the marshmallow launcher. 

The project requires two feet of PVC. As luck would have it, Home Depot sells PVC pipe in two foot lengths. I knew this project was meant to be when I saw the name of the PVC company.

Here's Char goofing around with the launcher. "... and my papa's going to film it..." (in case you need an interpreter)

We visited mini golf courses when the weather was decent. That's some blue water, my friend.

I thought it would fun for Char to have a putter of her own. I used a pipe cutter to shorten a club purchased at a thrift store. You can see how much of the shaft I cut off. My dad enjoyed collecting and restoring old golf clubs, so I already knew how to re-grip the putter. 

I bought a new ROSSA grip from eBay. It was pretty cheap because it was missing the ROSSA ball marker. I used my bench grinder to shape a penny to fit inside the end of the grip.

Char got upset when she lost the coin, but she calmed down when I asked her, "How much do you think it cost me to make that ball marker?"

"Ummm. A penny?"

"That's right. A penny. I think we can afford to make you another one." That's when I got a smile and a hug.

Here's another project. I bought this window at a Vintage and Made Fair a couple of years ago. Since then it's being hanging on the wall waiting for something to frame

I had Walgreen's print a poster of one our pictures taken in Québec City. Now we have a window looking out on our vacation in Canada.

Char's name was drawn in the Johnston Public Library's Summer Reading Contest. She won an electronic keyboard, a book about making instruments from everyday objects, and two packs of Pop Rocks. What did she get the most excited about?

She exclaimed, "Pop Rocks! I can't believe how lucky this is!"

Sometimes when we're out and about, we get hungry, but we don't want to take the time to eat at a restaurant. That's when we go to Kum & Go. They have healthy choices,  salads, sandwiches, and their pizza is good. On Wednesdays they have my favorite - bacon cheeseburger pizza!

Hey, don't judge! Chef and TV host Andrew Zimmern says his comfort food is gas station pizza, too.

Char's comfort food is egg drop soup. That bowl in the middle of the table was full when lunch began. Daphne and I had our own cups of hot and sour soup, but Char was the only one going to town on the egg drop.

There were a few thunderstorms rolling through Iowa in August, but I still haven't been able to get a  photograph of lightning. This picture is interesting and ominous, though.

On Sundays the Iowa Cubs let the kids run the bases after the game. That's pretty cool.

I visited Living History Farms for the first time. Daphne was a Living History Farms camp counselor when she was in college, and this year Charlotte was a LHF camper. The two showed me around.

Charlotte's favorite part of the tour? This farm cat.

I was impressed with the vintage campaign posters. The Concert at the Forum had quite a lineup: 

"On stage, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Carole King, and Quincy Jones performed for hordes of nubile screamers, who paid up to $100 a ticket to hear their favorite artists and gawk at the ushers: Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Julie Christie, Gene Hackman, Burt Lancaster, Jon Voight, Sally Kellerman, Robert Vaughn, Mama Cass, John Philip Law, Peggy Lipton, Michelle Phillips, plus the celebrities in the audience, Gregory Peck, Britt Eklund, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell."

 - The Village Voice

Daphne got a kick learning about the secret language of the fan while we visited the Victorian-styled Tangen House.

Well, it is time to use my right hand to hold the fan in front of my face. Summer's over. Let's go check out fall.

A Link to the Past

Several of my sophomore students will be reading The Great Gatsby this semester, so I thought I should read it myself.

The English department ordered a slew of new copies of the book,  but I borrowed an old copy from the department's old book cabinet. This is a 1986 edition.

I found this note card tucked between the pages. Looks like someone was bored in study hall. Kids, this is what your parents did in school because they didn't have cell phones.

The bookmark isn't the only thing I found inside.

F. Scott Fitzgerald dedicated The Great Gatsby to his wife, Zelda.

Look underneath the dedication.

Link is the main character in the 1987 video game The Legend of Zelda. 

The "Win with Link" sticker is from 1989.

There's an unused sticker for sale on eBay right now.

I wasn't an English teacher at UHS in 1989 (I was in college), but I worked with people who were teaching here then. I can tell you that this sticker would have made a couple of those ladies furious. If they would have seen it; they would have ripped it out.

So, as a teacher, what do I think? I think that it is a special kind of awesome that this gamer's joke has been hiding undetected inside this book for almost 30 years.

Rip it out? I'm more likely to frame it.

Music for the Ages

WARNING: This post is full of musical earworm links. Step carefully.

Recently Charlotte has been in the gripp of YouTube songs like "It's Raining Tacos", "Cat Flushing a Toilet", and "Space Unicorn." 

She likes the taco song so much she started a Taco Club at out house. There are three card-carrying members so far. 

However, only two of the members actually eat tacos. 

Char told me that these insanely catchy songs are written by Parry Gripp. That name sounded familiar, and it turns out that he's the lead singer of the rock band Nerf Herder. Nerf Herder, named after a Star Wars insult, released one of my favorite CDs of the late 90's. I saw them live at KKDM's DotFest in '97.

That was over twenty years ago, but I still know the lyrics to "Van Halen", "Sorry", and "Golf Shirt." 

Now when Char's is blasting "Narwhal Eating a Bagel" on the laptop, I can nod my head and sagely comment, "Nice choice. I've liked Parry Gripp for a long time."

Mr. Gripp has joined Charlotte Monson's Musical Ranks. Char wishes him welcome like she did for The Presidents of the United States, Andre 3000, They Might Giants, Barenaked Ladies,  Lisa Loeb, and The Verve Pipe.

As for me, I'm happy to welcome all of those artists back to my car stereo. 

Six years from now, Char and I will listen to your old stuff...

Road Trip!

Daph and I usually talk about food when we reminisce about vacations.

San Diego? Mexican.

Prince Edward Island? PEI mussels.

Victoria? Every downtown street had a bakery.

So, what about this summer's Canadian trip? 

The Pan Chancho Bakery in Kingston, is a fun place to visit.

The last thing we did in Kingston before heading to the train station was to have breakfast there. I ordered the Weekender: two eggs over easy on a croissant with bacon, chives and 2 year old cheddar. I added the two strips of bacon to go along with the peameal bacon. The bacon jam was a welcome addition.

In Québec City the breakfast sandwich at The Paillard was also a knock-out.

Check out those layers.

Our breakfast at Café La Maison Smith (also in Québec City) was no slouch, either. 

This bakery has quite a delivery vehicle.

One common thread linking these breakfasts is a croissant so light that it hovered slightly above the plate. Only the buttery taste kept it from floating away. And these are just the croissants I took pictures of. Others were consumed before I even remembered my camera. It didn't matter if the croissants were as rich in calories as they were in taste. We relied on public transportation, and we logged 99 miles of walking in ten days.

That was back in July, and we haven't been to a bakery since. I Googled "best Iowa bakeries", and discovered that the Des Moines Register reported in 2017 that BuzzFeed had named The Café in Ames as the best bakery in Iowa. BuzzFeed enlisted Yelp’s algorithm that measured the star ratings and reviews for every bakery in the state.

That got me thinking. We don't travel to Ames very often, and we have not been to any of the bakeries there. Hmmmmm...

We started at the Ames Farmers' Market on Saturday. 

This has nothing to do with baked goods, but the ribs from the Cornbred Barbecue food truck were awesome. 

Ali Cakes is located on the same street as the farmers' market, so we stopped in for a salted caramel cupcake. (If you want to sound Canadian, pronounce it "care-a-mel".)

The Dutch Oven Bakery was close, so we walked over there. I did not tell Charlotte my definition of a "dutch oven."

Apple pocket:

Great Harvest Bakery and Cafe recently opened in Ames. What a great surprise! Des Moines had a Great Harvest Bread Company store for years, but it sadly closed when Char was an infant. 

I love their white bread. In Des Monies it was sold as "Whata White!" When we spotted a Great Harvest store in Seattle, Daphne was kind enough to lug a loaf home for me in her airplane carry on.

Char was all too happy to relax with a slice, "This bakery tour idea is a lot better than I thought it would be, Dad."

We had to drive to get to The Cafe.

We ordered a croissant, and the gal behind the counter told us that their croissants were twice baked with a layer of almond paste. 

I wish I had I known that "twice baked" meant "crunchy" like "when you bite this, hard flecks will break off and hit your family." I would have had different expectations with that kind of information.

So, it wasn't The Cafe's fault, and it wasn't the day-old-croissant's fault, but this wasn't what I had hoped for.

The surprise of the day was at Insomnia Cookies.

The space inside isn't much to talk about. It's fairly dark and industrial. But the warm cookies... wow. 

My plan was to end our time in Ames by stopping by one more eatery. I hadn't tried Taco Time before, and I had a recommendation of what to order from a buddy who is an Ames native.

I pulled the car into Taco Time's parking lot, and this is what I saw in the back seat.

I didn't have the heart to stop the car again, so I turned around and drove home quietly. 

So, was the Bakery Tour a success?

No, not really. We were all tired after our first week back to school, and we were all fairly crabby. I should have waited a few weeks before I surprised the girls with my tour idea. We were not in the mood to have a great time; some days are just not filled with sunshine and unicorns. 

But in retrospect, our moods wouldn't have mattered. I can't recreate our bakery experience in Canada here in Iowa, and actually that's a good thing. If I could, then why would we travel there in the first place? 

Summer's over and so is our vacation. It's time to focus on what Iowa can bring to the table. And that's some great Iowa Chops, awesome steaks, the best milk from AE Dairy, killer bacon, Maid- Rites, pork tenderloins, farmers' markets, etc, etc, etc...

And maybe Taco Time. I haven't given up on making that stop.