The wind is blowing the sun away!

January 11, 2007 (1:00pm)
41º F, Bright and windy, SW wind 11 mph.

Good afternoon,

Boy was Margriet ever busy yesterday. She decided to make some pasties and did it in a big way. The total was 16 pasties and two small casseroles with the filling. All were baked and freezer ready. The idea was to eat a couple of the pasties and the rest would be frozen for future chewing. Because of a mis-communication between the Man and Woman living here, they got too cold to eat, except the casseroles - so we ate one of them. We will have the real thing for supper tonight. The filling was good and the pasties will be better. I know!

One of the special things we needed to pick up on Monday on our ride south, was a rutabaga. It is one of the necessary ingredients of pasties. It didn’t trip my mind at all that pasty making was on the agenda for Margriet. I suggested that I would make some Southern fried chicken for supper last night and really got a reaction I didn’t expect. We had also picked up some "cheap" hamburger (less than $1.00/#) at the Pig on our return and decided on the pasties. I heard it, but like most men - the message went right through my ears, not even slowing down a little bit. Oh well. The result was good. Maybe tomorrow night I will make the chicken. Or maybe not.

While we were in Manitowoc, we stopped at the Cook’s Corner store. It is going out of business - almost. They are closing the store in Manitowoc and have opened a new one in The Valley under a new name. This one has been closing since before Christmas, so we stopped to see what was left. Not much there of real interest - except for an apple corer we have been looking for a long while. Few of the small appliances were there. It appeared that they were taken to the new store, along with much of the higher end, lower profit margin items. Kind of disappointing. Was hoping to pick up and attachment or two for Margriet’s mixer.

She did find a set of molds to make turnovers and such. There are four different sizes and Margriet figured the largest one would work well for the pasties. A little small, but would do the job. As much as she tried, she only got one that worked satisfactorily. The rest kept falling apart as they were folded. Guess she will just have to use them for making some desert type of things. They looked good, putting the pastry on, filling the pocket, then folding over. Maybe it was just too much in them or something. Think they will work just fine for desert items though.

We have been checking out some DVD’s from the library recently. Of interest to us are a series from the TV program "Globe Trekker" ane the really old TV show series "Your Are There." Both series are very well produced and the You Are There series is teaching some history, especially of this country, to Margriet. I remember seeing them the first time "live." When I saw the they were in black and white and still are now. Kind of cool! They have a short use time, so we have to be careful to get them back on time again. I had a book over due last week, by one day, and the fine was 10¢! Almost broke me.

We still are having problems getting emails to come and go from the Netherlands. Not sure what the problem is, but it is some frustrating. The instant messaging accounts work well. I also am able to use my Gmail account without any apparent problems. I keep saying I need to contact our ISP and see if they have any thoughts on the problem, but have not yet. What is really strange though, is that Sandra, living in Pennsylvania, seems to get the emails OK - she has a Dutch email service. Not too sure what that is all about.

We really had problems with the ISP staying connected this morning. When I first got up, it would only stay connected to the web for 30 seconds to maybe a minute. Couldn’t even get a hold of the technical department as it would go down before I could start the email! At the moment it is working just fine and hope it stays that way.

The weather has taken a turn for the warm again today. Tonight and tomorrow the temperature should start to drop, with flurries possible in the morning. Then the temperature will plunge and stay more at a "normal" level again. There also is a snowstorm brewing out west, but that is expected to go south of us. This has been another strange winter!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><