October 30, 2008
Warm fall day
Trying to enjoy the last hurrah of warm fall days. I took the girls to the park again, and we had fun on the swings and the playground. Jadzia even met a new girl. I had to remind her how to introduce herself, because she said "Look, what's that girl doing?" and started yelling "Hey girl, what are you doing?" The girl's name was "Aniya" (not sure of the spelling), but Jadzia needed to be reminded many times to call her by her name. She sure wasn't shy, though. Jadzia immediately began telling her "This is my sister, Ludi" and launched into some fantasy play about making plastic things with wood chips (or something like that).
Int'l Josh Day(s)
I used to joke that my birthday was so big, it needed to be International Josh Week, not just International Josh Day. But in recent years, it has sort of stretched out into a longer celebration.
Since the girls were born, we've been kind of combining birthday parties. Yoli and my dad have birthdays just one day apart. My mom and I are 5 days apart.
When you throw in my weird work schedule (and, for that matter, my folks') sometimes we celebrate a few days ahead or afterward.
This year, we had a nice, laid-back evening with mom and dad on Tuesday. Yoli made a special meal for all of us which included a beef roast, cheesy twice-baked potatoes, and green beans. She also made a special teapot-shaped cake which turned out very beautifully.
I made a birthday card for my mom, which she found absolutely hilarious. She practically broke down laughing. I regret not filming her reaction!!
The next day, Wednesday, was my actual birthday. As usual, the girls went to Friendship International at the Hanley Road Baptist Church, and I went to the St. Louis County Library Headquarters to do some family research. As it turns out, my research went quite well this week, and I found a whole mess of Beckers and Cushings in the microfilmed records of Holy Ghost Catholic Church.
After Friendship, we all went to the Delmar Loop to buy some bookends from Plowsharing Crafts (we had to use my 15% birthday discount before it expired), and then had a nice lunch at Fitz's. I tackled the chili Frito burger, which I haven't had in a while. This time I managed not to make a huge mess (despite the fact that I now have a beard).
All in all, it was a nice way to spend my birthday "weekend."
October 27, 2008
Photos: River Road and Elsah, Illinois
On Saturday we drove up the River Road to Grafton. We spent most of our time walking around Elsah. The fall foliage wasn't totally changed over, which was a bit of a bummer. Maybe it will be more spectacular later this week.
Hope you enjoy these photos.
October 24, 2008
Meeting "new" family members
One of many neat things about doing family history research has been getting in touch with so many family members that I hadn't talked with before. For example, I have enjoyed calling and visiting with Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Jerry who were my great-grandma Becker's siblings.
Another good story is a man I met named Ed, who is (as far as I can tell) my great-grandpa Becker's only still-living first cousin. His house is just 10-15 minutes away, in the little north neck of St. Louis city along the Mississippi riverfront. I didn't know that Ed existed until I began doing this research.
It was a pleasant surprise to make his acquaintance. We have invited him over several times, and it's fun to be able to share food and folklore with him.
He didn't know his Becker relatives that well, but still he is able to remember some things from childhood and share some stories. In fact, I have been able to tell HIM some stories that he didn't know, like how his uncle John Becker was murdered. He knew something about that vaguely, but had never been told the details.
He has also told us stories about living through the great tornado that hit St. Louis in 1927, about life in the heavily-German area of north St. Louis where he grew up, about serving in Italy in World War II, about his time in the fire department, etc.
October 23, 2008
Breaking the terabyte barrier
Ever since I got back from Bolivia, one of the hard disks inside my PowerMac G4 was getting ready to fail. When it became clear that it was a physical problem, and not just a software issue, I decided it would be good to upgrade to two larger disks - 500 gigabytes each. Add that together, and that's a total of one terabyte of storage. Now we have a lot more room for digital photos and (especially) digital video editing.
And to think, at one time all I had was an Atari 800 with a cassette tape drive for external storage. Wowsers, we've come a long way.
This is what the inside of a PowerMac G4 MDD looks like, in case you were wondering. It could not be easier to upgrade these drives ... it's a pretty well-designed machine.
Election hits home
This has been a wild year in the race for president, what with the surprise outcomes of the primaries and now the back and forth between Obama and McCain.
For us, there has been a local twist. Two friends of our family are each running for spots in the Missouri House of Representatives: T.R. Carr, who is running in the 78th district, and Randy Jotte, who is running in the 91st district.
This morning we saw in the the newspaper that the Post-Dispatch was endorsing both of them! I know both families have been working hard campaigning, so I'm sure this must be quite exciting for them.
If you'd like to learn more about them, just click their names above. Or, if you'd like to learn more about the other candidates in those two races, click below:
- Margo McNeil - 78th district
- Jeanne Kirkton - 91st district
October 19, 2008
How do you like them apples?
Saturday morning we went to the Ferguson Farmer's Market and had a good time. I returned with a stroller heavily-laden:
- 10 lbs of lard
- 2 lbs green beans
- 1 lb romano beans
- 10 jonathan apples
- 2 soy candles
- 1 sleeping baby
And here's what we used the apples for:
A while back Yoli found a cookbook called "Great British cooking: A well-kept secret." Last night she tried her first recipe from it: a sort of baked apple-cinnamon pudding, using the jonathan apples from the farmer's market.
It turned out quite delicious. We ate it fresh at 2 a.m. and it was wonderful. Our second helping, reheated this afternoon in the microwave, was just as tasty (and not a bit soggy).
October 16, 2008
The MOUTH
Ludi lets us know very clearly when she is enjoying some food. Her mouth gapes open wide, her way of saying "shovel in the food, now!" In the photo above she was enjoying apple pie. She really, really, really likes apple pie and would probably never stop eating it if we didn't make her stop (or run out).
Jadzia is not quite so keen on apple pie. But she does love chocolate pie, which is on the menu for today.
Toothpaste
Jadzia is very excited because we finally got her some toddler toothpaste. Now she is big just like her mamá and papá, brushing, spitting, and doing everything we do with toothpaste.
