Lilac Festival...Kinda Sorta

HUGE lilac bush at Highland Park. I made Les stand next to it, but I don't think even that does it justice.

Highland Park in Rochester.

Last weekend Les and I decided to go to Rochester and check out the Lilac Festival we had been hearing so much about. It was raining, but When we got to the parking area the attendant told us that because of the weather the musical performances had been canceled and "some of the vendors have voluntarily closed up." We decided we weren't really there to see the music and the flowers would still be pretty and to chance it. So we went ahead and paid the lady $5 for parking and walked into the park.

Magnolia tree in the wind.

The rain started to pick up and by the time we made it to the lilacs it had gotten pretty windy. So most of my photos suck. But it was absolutely beautiful. I wish there was a way to capture the smell because it was unbelievable, rain and wet dirt and millions of flowers.

We wandered around and took several photos, most of which didn't turn out because of the wind and the rain. But the ones that did turn out were pretty cool because of the water droplets clinging to everything. The only photos I really wanted but didn't get were some close ups of lilacs. The wind was just too much.

Beautiful dark purple tulip in the rain.

But aside from not getting perfect photos, we had a great time. There were almost no people around, so no fighting to navigate umbrellas, no getting in people's way to take photos. And we were hoping no lines or crowds at the actual festival. Unfortunately the parking attendant was a bit conservative in her statement about the vendors, it wasn't that some of them had voluntarily closed down, they were ALL gone and so was there stuff. I think she had to have known that but she went on ahead and took our money anyway. The entire festival was abandoned, but it still smelled like funnel cake. Strange but true, funnel cake and lilac, two great smells that smell great together.

Abandoned festival grounds, origin of the funnel cake smell.

After we arrived at the festival area and found it empty, the wind and the rain started to pick up. So much so that we had to put the cameras away and use both hands to keep our umbrellas from flying away. By the time we got back to the car, ours was the only one in the entire lot. We were also completely soaked. Our shoes were completely full of water, our pants were completely saturated all the way up to our knees. We couldn't stop laughing about it.

But I loved the rain, I loved seeing the park without the bother of hundreds of other people, I loved how pretty the flowers were with the raindrops clinging to them, but most of all I loved tromping through the rain with Les. It was a wonderful weekend. But we will definitely try again next year for a more traditional Lilac Festival experience.

Pansy display at the festival area.

Les taking photos right before his umbrella turned inside out and we decided to put away the cameras.

Our Trip to a Western New York Museum with Strong Ties to Utah Culture

A gelometer, from the factory in Le Roy.

I bet you thought this would have something to do with Mormonism, didn't you? (In fact I'm going to make sure the first photo is ambiguous for when this shows up on Facebook.) But it doesn't, it's about something much better.

I got a rare Friday off work because of Easter, so Les and I decided to do something fun. We were going to go to the zoo, but the weather was not zoo friendly. So instead, we went to Le Roy. Le Roy, New York is a small village of less than 5,000 people as of the 2000 census. And most people have never even heard of it. But it is the birthplace of an American classic and they have a museum and gallery devoted to it.

Arch from the 2002 Winter Olympics.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's Jell-O, but I didn't want that to show up in the blurb. It was a nice trip, and didn't cost a lot. We had fun and didn't get wet. By the way the device in the first picture is a device used to measure the texture of Jell-O, before the era of computerized manufacturing.

The museum was very interesting, if poorly lit. (So excuse the poor quality of the photos, it was really bad lighting.) The entrance to the gallery is an arch that was used in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Banner flapping in the wind

We learned about the history of Jell-o and some interesting trivia. Pearle B. Wait was a carpenter from LeRoy, New York, he also liked to play around in the kitchen, he was known for making cough syrup. In 1897 he developed a fruit-flavored version of gelatin, which was around as a dessert, but a very complicated process to make. His wife, May Davis Wait, named it Jell-O after a seeing the success of a coffee replacement drink of the time, called Grain-O.

Jell-O girl stone from the factory in Le Roy.

The first flavors of Jell-O were strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon. In 1899 Wait sold his business to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, owner of the Genesee Pure Food Company, for $450. Woodward originally had little success with Jell-O, and at one point he offered the entire Jell-O business to his associate Sam Nico for $35. Nico turned him down.

In 1902 the first Jell-O ad appeared in Ladies Home Journal. Combined with a strategy of handing out samples and recipe books. Within two years Jell-O had made more than a million dollars. 

Several famous artists created Jell-O ads. Those ads have appeared all over the world.

The Jello-O girl made her debut in 1904. She was Elizabeth King, the daughter of Franklin King, an artist for Genesee’s ad agency. She was shown playing in her nursery, not with toys but with JELL-O gelatin packages. Jell-O was know as the dainty dessert and King felt his daughter illustrated daintiness. She became one of the most recognizable advertising figures of the first half of the twentieth century.

Jell-O girl display.

Isn't he just so dainty?

 By 1923 Genesee Pure Foods Company had been renamed Jell-O company. And on December 31, 1925 the company was sold to the Postum Cereal Company, becoming the first subsidiary of a large merger that would eventually become General Foods Corporation.

 So that's enough of a history lesson. Les and I enjoyed learning about the history of Jell-O though, I had no idea it was a local product until we nearly rented a house in Le Roy and I Googled how to pronounce Le Roy (there are two ways, neither right or wrong, apparently).

The caption in the display doesn't quite match the photo.

We also learned some trivia about Jell-O. A surprising amount of that trivia was about Utah. Of course we learned that Utahns eat the most Jell-O, the tour guide seemed surprised that we knew that. He mentioned the green Jello-O pins from the Olympics when he talked about the arch.

One thing I didn't know, but that didn't surprise me is that Jell-O is the official state snack of Utah. They had a display showing the govenor presenting Bill Cosby with a plaque when Jell-O was officially named the state snack. Notice the display names Governor Michael O. Leavitt. But if you look closely you'll notice that isn't him. Les and I spent probably ten minutes trying to remember her name. I kept telling him I was pretty sure it started with a W. He eventually came up with the last name Oneal. I told him that wasn't it and after a few minutes Oneal triggered the name Olene in my brain. Once we had that Les came up with Walker. It was rather amusing.

Information about Bill Cosby's relationship with Jell-O

Every visitor to the gallery votes for their favorite flavor.

Speaking of Bill Cosby, he became the company's spokesperson in 1974 and remained so for nearly 30 years and he recently reunited with Jell-O. According to our tour guide this is the longest celebrity/product spokesperson relationship in history, but I could not verify that anywhere online.

Jell-O molds through the ages.

Another interesting fact I had never heard of, in 1993 Dr. Adrian Upton was trying to prove you cannot use an EEG detecting brain waves as proof someone was alive. To prove this technicians in Batavia, New York hooked up a bowl of lime Jell-O to an EEG machine and found it had the same brain waves as a live adult. To commemorate this the Jell-O gallery has a green brain on display.

Timeline of Jell-O flavors.

Spring Fever

Isn't our little house just so quaint?

It's amazing what an amazing impact the weather can have. I'm not talking the hurricanes and mudslides and drought, although that can be pretty amazing, I'm talking on me personally. I hate to be cold, I'd rather be way too hot than a little bit chilly. I am generally pretty miserable in the winter, maybe it's seasonal affective disorder, maybe it's just because being cold sucks. But I am happiest in the middle of the desert in the middle of summer, dry 100 degree heat is my element. And, unfortunately this year spring has been very slow in coming.

An old photo of a foggy morning.

But today was a perfect weather day. I was leaving the house at around 6:30 this morning and it was foggy. By 7:00 when I pulled into the parking lot at work, the fog was so thick I couldn't see the road from my parking space. And unlike the fog in Utah, it smelled like wet dirt and grass, very springy. It was a nice change from the fog I experienced in Ogden, that was really smog, not fog, and always smelled like the dog food plant.  The smell made it feel like spring was finally on it's way. And that made me surprisingly happy. It made the morning at work seem to go by pretty fast.

I spent all day at work, inside. I can see the outside world, but I've learned that looking at it just makes it harder to stay inside. So I didn't really notice how the day went between 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. I saw a few people wearing shorts, but that is hardly an indicator of good weather, there are idiots who wear shorts year-round.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I put my coat on and walked outside and found it to be uncomfortably hot. I took my coat off, rolled the window down and drove home. I left the window down even on the highway going 55 (and only 55 because I don't speed). When I drove through Mt. Morris the sign at the bank said 77 degrees. It made me so happy to see that, it seems so long since I was warm.

While waiting in traffic in Mt. Morris it started to rain, big fat summer raindrops. It was awesome. I left the window down, I know it sounds odd but the smell of the rain on the hot truck and asphalt was one of the best smells I have ever smelled.

Sunset over the Finger Lakes Trail.

The rain was very localized and had stopped by the time I left the village. It hadn't rained at home so I didn't have to towel down the muddy dogs for the first time in like two weeks. I was so happy with the temperature I changed immediately out of my work clothes and into a tank top. I wanted to go for a walk but I can't handle both dogs on my own and Les was still at work. I guess I could have gone without the dogs, but that just seems mean. So I opened up some windows and enjoyed the breeze.

Little guy in the window. Notice the rainbow outside

The animals were really enjoying the open windows, we've never lived anywhere where we could have open windows that they could access. So I decided to take a photo of Dimitri sitting in the window, checking it out. It turned out to be a really crappy photo, metered on the outside instead of the cat. But it was then I noticed the little rainbow out the window. The cat ran off so I couldn't get another photo of him, so I decided to go outside and capture the rainbow. I got a few photos, but they all had power lines in them and I couldn't get a better view before the rainbow faded. I was so excited, it really felt like spring. I'm not sure why, but it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Summer rain in the driveway.

I went back inside and listened to the intermittent rain and enjoyed the smell of spring. While watching Jeopardy I noticed a really cool sunset. So I decided to photograph that as well. While outside I noticed another rainbow, in nearly the same spot as the other one, but much brighter and larger. It was the most incredible rainbow I have ever seen! (And I don't use exclamation points lightly.)

I wish I had a wider angle lens so I could show you the whole thing, but let's try it in sequence.

It's pretty rare, in my experience, to see the complete arch of a rainbow. It was like in a cartoon or something.

The double rainbow was more visible on this end.

My self portrait for the day.

I wandered around in the summer rain for like 20 minutes taking pictures. Walking around in the rain, nearly barefoot, with my hair down, bare arms, it was incredible. I felt connected to nature, I felt like a hippie, it was awesome. I was in an incredible mood and it felt great to be happy for no real reason. Even now it's after 10:00 at night and the windows are still open and it feels wonderful. Even though I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow and work all day, today gave me the feeling I had when I was a kid and school was out for the summer and I didn't have a single care in the world. Just because of some nice weather.

The very end of the sunset, it was incredible from start to finish today.

5 Reasons I Like Easter Better Than Christmas

Halloween will always be my favorite holiday, hands down. Always has been, always will be. There's just something about free candy, dressing up and scaring the living crap out of people that makes me happy. Plus I love fall colors and sweater weather.

And, as anyone who knows me will attest, I HATE Christmas. Maybe it's from working in retail too long, maybe I'm just a humbug since I've hated it since I was a little kid, but I cannot stand that holiday. The music, the religious bullshit, the incessant commercials, the music, the crowds, the fact that it lasts for months and months, the music, the family drama, the horrible weather, I hate it all. And did I mention I hate the music? Aside from the music I think the thing that bothers me the most is the "me first, I'm more important that everyone else" attitude that people seem to have at Christmas time. Even people who would normally be nice and pleasant to be around, turn into egomaniacal jackasses while standing in line to buy Christmas presents for their precious little bundles of joy.  

So why is Easter better? You'd think it would be at least somewhat similar, being an important Christian holiday based almost entirely on pagan traditions. But for some reason Easter has never bothered me, in fact it's my second favorite holiday. And here's why...

1- The candy. Yeah sure, Christmas has it's own candy, but it's just regular candy in different packaging, or maybe colors or shapes. Easter brings the most wonderful things on the planet, Cadbury eggs. The creme filled ones and the little candy coated chocolate ones, I love them both. I wait all year for them. And yes I know they have a Christmas version of the little ones, but it isn't the same. 

2- The lack of music. At Christmas time the god-awful, mind-numbing, someone-please-stab-me-in-the-brain-and-make-it-stop music infiltrates every corner of my existence. I've never heard any Easter music. In fact the only song that comes to mind when I think of Easter is Peter Cottontail. I'm sure the Christians have some particular hymns they sing, but I don't have to hear them eight-and-a-half hours a day (510 minutes, just in case you were wondering) for three months.

3- The colors. Red and green look awful together. Sure, people keep trying to modernize and class up Christmas with other colors, but red and green will always be the Christmas colors. Easter brings a lovely palette of pastels, girly but pretty.

4- The lack of religious bullshit. The basis of both holidays is, supposedly, based on Jesus. Being born, and then becoming a zombie as I understand it. But at Christmas everyone and their dog turns into an uber-Christian. Even people who haven't been to church in decades, who don't claim to be religious at any other time of the year, start spouting Fox News "War On Christmas" bullshit. And that's to say nothing for the regular uber-Christians. At Easter I will see an occasional Facebook post about "the true meaning of Easter" or the chocolate crosses next to the chocolate bunnies on the aisle in the grocery story, but that's about it. No one lectures me on how I am a bad person for not believing  exactly the same thing they do.

5- The weather. I really hate to be cold, I would rather be way too hot than a little chilly. Easter is usually in the height of spring (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, and no, I didn't have to Google that). Where as Christmas is right after the winter solstice, cold and dark. I prefer pretty flowers and baby animals to snow and sub-zero temps.

Gushy-Girly Crap

They say opposites attract. (And don't ask who they are, they just fucking are, okay?) Now I can't imagine being attracted to someone who is completely opposite me, a conservative Christian who listens to country music and wants a buttload of kids. In fact I think that would end rather badly, if for some reason it were to ever start.

Luckily I am with a guy who is none of those things  Les and I are actually pretty similar, we're both nerds, but in different ways. He's into computers and news and tea, and I'm into books and science and coffee. We're both into politics to differing degrees, but our personal politics line up pretty well. We both like the same types of foods and have broadened each others' horizons since being together. But there is one pretty big way that we are completely opposite.

Les is really romantic, like traditional, roses and chocolates, gushy type romantic. He's really heartfelt and looks in my eyes and tells me he loves me. He gives me long, romantic, poetic greeting cards for special occasions and talks about his feelings. You, know gushy-girly crap.

I, on the other hand, refer to that kind of thing as "gushy-girly crap." I don't really do romance, in fact it makes me distinctly uncomfortable. I tell him I love him, but when I do it, it only takes three words. If I buy him candy it's probably because it was on sale. When I buy greeting cards they have to be funny, and preferably dirty. I do talk about my feelings if something is wrong. But my theory is that if he doesn't know I love him by now, based on the last six-and-a-half-years, that's his problem.  

I'm thinking this romantic side of Les's is either the result of being raised in a house with three women in it, or it's genetic. I also think my dislike of traditional romance is from either genetics or being raised with no women around. What made me think about all of this today was this post about the third anniversary of Les's brother and sister-in-law. (If you click the link, beware, annoying music will start to play, I apologize for that.) What a cute romantic story right? I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing. But it works for them, so good for them. However, if Les had done that on our anniversary, I would have been uncomfortable and told him that his vagina was showing.

I figure there must be a little bit of a romantic in me or I wouldn't have gotten married. But I didn't do the whole traditional wedding thing. We got married in a courthouse with the bare minimum of people in attendance. Part of the reason for this was financial, but I think a bigger part was me being uncomfortable standing in front of a whole bunch of people and talking about lovey-dovey stuff. I don't have a problem with public displays of affection, I'm okay holding hands and kissing in front of other people. But I'm uncomfortable talking about it with Les under normal circumstances, why would I want to do it in front of everyone I know?

Les has come to understand me a little better over the years I think, and has toned down his girly side. He's never gone all out for our anniversary like his brother did. In fact he forgot our second anniversary. And since then he has started a tradition of buying me candy corn, which is great. And I'm bringing him around on the cards. He doesn't quite get it but he's coming closer. Last year his sister had a baby on my birthday, in the morning, and named her Lucy, so Les got me a card, in the afternoon, with Lucy from the peanuts on it. I'm counting that as progress.

Home Sweet Home

My last post was about the major stresses of house hunting. Well, that's all over, we found a place, the very first place we inquired about in fact. There were some people ahead of us in responding to the ad but eventually all of them either fell through or didn't like the house, so we got it. And we love it.

This house, in Mt. Morris, New York, is the right in the middle of where our jobs are, and the rent is the right price. Plus the house is almost perfect, if it had a porch it would be my dream house. It's "out in the country" according to the New Yorkers, it's not even close to rural by my standards, but I guess I'm just not used to being in the 3rd most populous state (7th in population density, BTW) yet.

This house was built in the 1800s and was a schoolhouse at one point, so it's full of character. It sits on three acres, full of birds and critters and deer, so the dogs love it. It's so quaint, it even has a swing on one of the trees in the front yard.

Living in Vernal and being married to someone who has a career in newspapers has taught me that I should never  buy a house again. (Not that I wanted to the first place, but thats not the point.) But we are still looking to be in this house longer than we were in our previous places.

I am rather looking forward to decorating this place, more than I have any of the other places we've lived. I'm considering that a good sign. So let me take you on a virtual tour of this house and tell you about my crazy decorating ideas. We'll start upstairs.

The bathroom thankfully already has green walls (actually greener than they look in these photos, I was using Les's camera very late at night on no sleep) because I will be sticking with my froggy theme. I've always liked frogs for the bathroom, it just seems to fit. And I've already got the stuff for it. More than I need in fact since we have no need for a shower curtain here. In other news I LOVE the shower here, I can stretch my arms all the way out. At our last place you had to step out of the shower as you opened the door or you didn't fit inside anymore. There is also enough hot water for me to wash everything, hair included, it's been a long time since I've had that.

Of all my decorating ideas I am most excited about the office. We got a really cool, very old, desk free from Les's office when they reorganized. It's really awesome old wood and it looks great with the bright blue walls. We're decorating this room with horribly gaudy, completely over the top gold frames with funny/nerdy sayings and pictures in them. Think nerdy t-shirts and bumper stickers. We're having the most fun with this one 'cause we're both big giant nerds.

We picked the biggest, and fortunately, most normal colored room for our bedroom. We're decorating this room with our own photos. And we're going to find a phrase to base them around and put it on that slanted part of the ceiling.

And then there's the guest room. At least for now it's a guest room, we may change that later. It was obviously a little girl's room at one point. And yes, it really is that purple. We have a couple of decorating ideas for this room, but it depends on what we decide to do with it. If we continue with our previous trend with guest rooms, it will be hideous art from the '70s centered around these two pieces of green and gold string art we picked up at a yard sale in Vernal. It should match the purple fantastically.

This is the first place we've ever lived with stairs. The animals are having fun with them and we've decided to decorate the stairway with our family photos. A big part of both of our lives is writing, and we really want to incorporate words into each room. We have a few ideas for the bedrooms, but nothing solid yet. But for the stairway we're going with a very famous quote my a great man, Homer Simpson, "Remember as far as anyone knows, we're a nice normal family." It will go on the slanted part of the ceiling, right in front of you as you descend the stairs.

Then there is the downstairs. It's split pretty evenly, half kitchen, half living room. We've decided to decorate the living room with photos we've taken based around the phrase "Not all who wander are lost." We have traveled around enough and taken enough photos along the way, it should be fun. I think the hardest part is going to be deciding on which photos to use. I'm hoping to get that phrase up on the wall somewhere too. The first photo is taken from the perspective of the front door (that we don't really use because of the wind). The second is from the perspective of the corner in the first shot, the folding doors are the pantry in the kitchen. The stairs are on the left.

Last but not least, the kitchen. The photo is taken taken from the pantry. The temporary house we just moved out of was only slightly larger than this kitchen. Those folding doors hold the washer and dryer with a lovely little shelf for soap and what not.

I've decided to decorate this room with a coffee theme. I considered sticking with my farm animals kitchen theme, but it wasn't really going anywhere. I also considered wine, the colors appealed to me, but while Les has become quite the connoisseur, I don't drink wine. And we both love coffee.

Then there are the extras, aside from the swing, the house came with a shed. I didn't decorate it. It makes me look way more patriotic that I really am. I do like the old street signs and the giant Pepsi cap on the side though. We also have the cutest doghouse ever, a picnic table, a firepit and several little gardens (that will probably die because I don't do bugs or dirt and Les kills every plant he's ever come in contact with, Chia pet included).

Movers and Shakers

We have moved once again! Shocking, I know, but it's true. We knew when we moved from Washington that we would be living in our tiny little vacation cottage just for the winter. So for the first time this move wasn't pulled completely out of thin air. Since we've been together, Les and I have moved five times.

Upstairs Lady's cat, taken from the doorway of our basement apartment.

The first time was from an awful basement apartment to a small house, both in Price. We weren't really expecting to move, but we got fed up with the slumlord ladlord being trying to sell the house out from underneath us and generally being ridiculous.

We only lived in that small house for four-and-a-half-months. We had intended to stay longer but Les was offered a job in Vernal and we felt it was important to his career to take it. So we packed up and bought a horrible little house that we kinda hated. But more than we hated our house, we hated Vernal. It was a town rigidly divided between hardcore TBM locals and "oil-field trash." Neither of whom were very friendly or open groups, both pretty hostile to outsiders. We simply didn't have the right last name or wear the right underpants to be happy in Vernal.

On top of that Les's job was heinous. He was working the jobs of three people and only getting paid for one. He was working at least 75 hours a week, usually more and went nearly a year and a half without sleeping on Monday nights. When he was hired it was with the title of editor, but his boss wanted him to use the title of associate editor for a two or three months to ease the community into the change. 15 months later he was still being referred to as associate editor and we found out his boss was bringing in a new guy to be the editor, without talking to Les at all. So we decided it wasn't worth staying in a place we hated just so he could be treated like crap. So he started applying for jobs all over the western United States.

Within a month he had accepted a position in Yuma, Arizona. We made plans to take a trip to Yuma to find a house. But before we left on that trip, Les got another job offer, this time in Chelan, Washington. It was a better job than the one in Yuma, editor instead of reporter, and paid more. So we changed our scouting trip to Yuma to a scouting trip to Chelan. We liked it, it was so much better than Vernal. By this time Les had officially been out of the Mormon church for nearly two years and was overdue to live outside of the beehive state. We packed up our car and a U-Haul truck and drove from Ogden to Ardenvoir in a single day with the help of Les's awkwardly silent father and new sister-in-law.

We planned to stay in Washington for several years. Les liked his job, I loved my job, we both loved the community. The only problems we really had was a landlord who was a little too full of himself. But he was in another state so it wasn't that big of a deal. But after about two years the company started having problems. Little things like bills not getting paid on time and services getting cut off. Add to that a hiring freeze and a pay freeze which meant once again Les was doing two jobs and only getting paid for one for more than a year. The company cut off medical benefits with only a few hours of warning, forcing a lapse in coverage for everyone but the owners, who knew it was coming. Les decided it wasn't worth going down with the ship.

We talked about it and decided that if he didn't find a new job soon, he may very well be out of one. Having come to that conclusion, he started looking for jobs anywhere. And I mean anywhere, he applied for several jobs that would have kept us in Washington state, one that would be a commute, but would probably even allow us to stay in the house we were in. But also in at least 15 other states, probably more. Several of them went nowhere because of proximity. But the one that worked out was in western New York state. So, yet again we packed up and went. But I already wrote about that.

Our new house in Mt. Morris

Finding a place to live from 2,800 miles away is no easy task. So we wound up with a lakeside vacation cottage for the winter. We knew it was only until the spring. Now we have a house in Mt. Morris and, while we pulled the entire move off in just two days, it was the most planned one we've ever done. And with any luck we'll be here for quite a while. We keep saying that we're staying put and then taking off at the drop of a hat, the goal is not to do that this time. I don't mind it, I grew up spontaneously moving all over the country, but Les's parents still live in the same house they bought the year he was born (one of the many things about his family I simply can't wrap my head around). So I think it's harder for him.