Thursday February 23 2017 | File under: juggling, holidays |
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Being a city boy mostly these days, it was nice to spend some time at the family farm in Oklahoma this Thanksgiving. I was surrounded by family, noodles, hay bales, baby lambs, peanut brittle, pitch*, and more...and it was great! I took Della along to give her a taste of the Midwest and she took to it quite nicely*
There's a beauty and simplicity to county life. The days centered around meals (which were plentiful and wonderful!) and excursions. Such excursions took us to dad's old homestead, which has seen better days, Norman to visit friends and family and cruise through the old stomping grounds, and a neat little roadside attraction off Route 66 that featured a 60 foot LED pop bottle and the soda selection to go along with it*. Yes, it's good to go back home once in a while. This trip to Oklahoma reminded me that I should make a habit of going back more often. It was just so wonderful to be surrounded by family, the simplicity of life on the farm, and lots and lots of good eats! |
Saturday November 26 2016 | File under: holidays, Oklahoma |
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We all can agree that Pi Day is the best holiday ever. It combines nerdiery and dessert and can be celebrated in the simplest possible way. I've documented 7 previous instances on this here blog (see archive) of me celebrating in one way or another (creating a crossword, getting a [different (and much better)] crossword published, testing my pi memory, and, of course, baking pies). The only 2 Pi Days I've missed posting on since the blog began were when I was travelling (Japan and Belize/Guatemala). So I can hardly let this Pi Day pass by.
This year, we didn't do anything too special, just baked a couple of pies: quiche for breakfast and an apple/rhubarb pie for dessert. The carved apple "π DAY" was a nice touch. But just because we didn't go all out celebrating doesn't mean we didn't appreciate the holiday in all its glory. 3.14 cheers for Pi Day! |
Monday March 14 2016 | File under: holidays, food |
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Tis the night before Christmas
And here in Dubai We're taking it all in My Della and I We saw Burj Kalifa Tallest building man made We watch the grand fountains And strolled the promenade At the Burj Al Arab Down on the sea shore We jumped and we jumped And got the pic I came for This town seems to teem With malls big and small We visited a half dozen But that's hardly them all Paris has the Seine And Vegas's nightlife is hopping But as fars I can tell Dubai's known for shopping The places were packed You couldn't swing a dead cat Acre upon acre of Things to look at We peered at the sweets shop Where they made candy by hand We watch sharks in huge tanks And we browsed luxury brands At one mall we saw The biggest afront made by man A ski slope in the desert Just 'cause they can This town's an enigma Nothing else like it on earth I'm glad to be seeing it Whatever that's worth But tomorrow we move on, Flying out Christmas Day On our way to Luxor Egypt We might pass Santa's sleigh Tonight I'll hang up My socks with great care Not to be filled with gifts But 'cause they need the air I'll lay down my head Upon the mattress on the floor* And be thankful I have All I could ever wish for An adventuresome Christmas Is best gift I could get Some time with my sweetie That I'll never forget But now I must go And close out this verse Lest my words become boring And rhymes become worse So I'll just end it the way That I always do With all of my heart I wish Merry Christmas to you (If you're jonesing for more Of my silly yule tradition Go on and click through To the previous editions '07, '08, '09, '11, '12, '13, '14) |
Thursday December 24 2015 | File under: holidays, poetry |
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This year's Pi Day has been getting a lot of attention, as it should. It's a once a decade event!* (If you've somehow missed all the news coverage, it's a big deal because it is 3/14/15 to correlate with 3.1415....) But as longtime BdW followers may know, Pi Day has always been a big deal here*. It is usually celebrated with the baking of a pie (or two) and a reciting of the first 50 digits, which I still remember from 9th grade*.
This year I plan to bake (and eat) a pie or two, of course. What would Pi Day be without pie? But since it is a special Pi Day, I wanted a special way to celebrate, one that I started working towards 5+ months ago. I set out to create a crossword to commemorate the day and get it published in a nationwide publication. I'm happy to say mission accomplished (ish). My puzzle, Pi Row Technics, appears in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education online. It was slated to be in the print edition, but some quarterly insert preempted the crossword section, and since the puzzle was time sensitive, they couldn't push it to next week, so online is where it ended up. Not ideal, but as the editor pointed out, most of the solvers use the online version anyway so the audience isn't much diminished. This marks my third published crossword and my glee is as high as it was for that first one. And with each published puzzle, I'm learning more about the industry. What was interesting about this experience was to see how many changes the editor made for publication. Besides changing ~75% of the clues, he also changed 7 grid squares. I know these changes are the editor's job, as he knows his target audience and difficulty levels, but I was surprised to see the volume of changes. One of the downsides of CHE's online crosswords is that you need a special program to download and play them. And since I know all of you want to have a crack at it but don't want to install new software, I've created a PDF of the puzzle for you to print and solve. Just be sure to visit CHE and surf around a bit as a thank you for continuing to make my dreams of professional crossworder come true. (In case you are interested to see the before and after edit, you can see the submitted puzzle here.) Each experience with getting a puzzle accepted amps me up to get in even deeper. I've got another puzzle slated to come out in a couple months and a few out for consideration to various places. So keep watching BdW to see the excitement unfold. In the meantime, go eat some pie and do a crossword! (03/20/16 Edit: In preparing my 2016 Pi Day post, I noticed that I didn't post any pie pictures for this year's Pi Day post. Even with the excitement of this crossword coming out, I figured I would have celebrated the holiday properly, so I went back through my instagram feed and found this! Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that I can be very predectable.) |
Saturday March 14 2015 | File under: crosswords, holidays |
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It's that time again—to reluctantly and hastily dash off a few Roses are Red poems for that special someone. Well, that special someone for me is you, dear reader. So here are a few hastily dashed off poems to celebrate year number 9(!) of the Blog du Wren Roses Are Red poetry slam. Please leave your contributions in the comments below. Or, if you're not feeling the poetry bug, have a read back at the previous years ('14', '13, '12, '11, '10, '09, '08, '07)
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Friday February 13 2015 | File under: poetry, holidays |
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Twas the night before Christmas
And all through Sin City The lights were aglow Making everything look pretty The bright neon greens And sultry neon reds Could almost be seen as A tree, Della said The fountains at Bellagio And the tower high above Paris Miss Liberty at New York new York And the giant new wheel of ferris But for Vegas this is standard Every night here is glitzy After all that's why people come here To feel a tad ritzy But not me and Della Shows are our reason For coming to this place This holiday season So we did our best And saw three shows just today We saw a juggler, we saw Mac King We saw a Cirque du Soleil But Vegas has more than shows big and small Sometimes you'll end up doing Something you didn't expect to at all We got roped into sitting through a timeshare man's pitch And they almost convinced Til we remembered we're not rich But the swag that we got Has added to our fun Free lunch and a free show And some cash (not a ton) We packed it quite full This Christmas Eve day But tomorrow will* be fuller Cause we're hitting the buffet Until then we rest On our giant hotel bed While visions of adventures Dance in our heads I think about Santa As I lay my head and retire I don't think he'll visit But I've got all I desire Good family, good friends And my partner I adore Good health and good home Who could ask for much more So I drift off to dreamland And its warm soft embrace Reflecting on my full life With a smile on my face And just as I've ended The 6 previous 'Twas posts'07, '08, '09, '11, '12, '13 I offer up my wishes For my friends coast to coast May your holiday be A day filled up with delight Merry Christmas to all And to all a good night! |
Thursday December 25 2014 | File under: holidays, poem |
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Merry Christmas from our family to yours! |
Tuesday December 23 2014 | File under: holidays |
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For the past 3 years on my birthday, I've been involved in some Chautauqua event, whether tour or a benefit. While Chautauqua is always a fun time, individual celebration can get lost in the mob. This year, my calendar was clear and I tried to take full advantage of it. With the planning help of my wonderful partner, the day was a resounding success.
In short, breakfast with the fam (including cake*!), a dip in the quarry (when the weather was super hot, so it was great!), gathering with friends for happy hour (and more cake(!)), juggle club at the park with more friends (some of whom even dressed up as me!), and all ending by sleeping in my cabin at the quarry*. Birthdays can be stressful with too much expectation or can be lonely with not enough planning. Mine, I'm happy to report, was just perfect. |
Thursday August 14 2014 | File under: holidays |
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As Pi Day Eve drew to a close yesterday, I was on the verge of resorting to my standard Pi Day fare: a pecan pie and quiche (posted here and here)*. But last minute inspiration brought forth this beauty, an apple pi pie. We think it turned out peachy. Della was responsible for the artistry while I did the culinary stuff. A little cocoa powder did the trick for coloring the pi dough. Yay for Pi Day! |
Friday March 14 2014 | File under: holidays, food |
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