Going Medieval

This weekend my family and I will be heading to Pennsylvania for the Society for Creative Anachronism's Pennsic War.  Pennsic is something of a full immersion Medieval Fair on steroids.  It has also been our family's main vacation for the last 9 years.  Not only do we get to camp out for two weeks, but the kids get to participate in a number of activities they don't have access to the rest of the year like archery, theatre, youth combat, and dance that doesn't involve ballet shoes.  Moreover there is nothing like 2 weeks in the woods with portajohns and without electricity to remind children to appreciate what they have when they get home.  (In fact when the kids were younger the first thing they would do is run up to the bathroom and flush the toilet. Repeatedly. Just to witness the miracle.)

Me and the kids at their first Pennsic,
They were smaller then.

Last year's war was all about the weather which was very wet, featuring several of the most amazing thunderstorms I have ever seen.  This year will probably be something different, though the weather service is saying the heat wave should break this weekend. 

Father and Daughter waiting out one of the
numerous storms last year

For me one of the greatest things about Pennsic is that I don't hear phones ring for two whole weeks. Only people who have  answered phones for a living can fully appreciate this I suspect. (The other greatest thing is that being in another state keeps me from being tempted by the endless stream of overtime at work. If I don't go away, I'll go in)Although its true that almost everyone, including myself has a phone in their pouch they are all on mute.  It is considered the height of rudeness to have a phone go off in the wrong place and disrupt the illusion.  The downside is the limited availability of Internet communications.  There is a vendor providing such services for a fee, so I will probably get out a post or two, but the operative word here is fee. 

Ironically, I know that while I am heading back to the Middle Ages, many of my fellow bloggers are header to the BlogHer conference where they will be focusing on more effective and creative electronic communications.  At one point last year I was sitting in a tent waiting out a huge thunderstorm texting a friend who was waiting to get into a BlogHer forum.  Strange juxtapositions.

So everyone, safe journeys wherever you go the rest of this month, and I will see you all in August.

Girls Go to the Mall

     A few years ago we were visiting with a friend who happens to be the only female in her household.  One day she and I took my daughter to the local mega mall.  After our third trip into a store to appraise inexpensive earrings, odd colors of nail polish and deliberately non matching socks my friend observed "I didn't even know these stores were here."

     Going to the mall with the Girl  is quite unlike going with the Boy.  The Boy nearly always has a specific goal in mind.  He wants to go to Radio Shack, the Sports and Magic card emporium or the video game store. Maybe if there's time (his idea of time, not mine) we might look into the pet store to see if there are any new exotic pets.  But that's it.  An hour's visit perhaps, most of it spent looking over autographed photos of celebrated baseball players.

Going with the Girl is a whole different experience. 

I have to admit upfront that I am not much of a mall person, and have moreover been casually boycotting our local mall since they banned buses from pulling into the parking lot.  (Casually boycotting means I will go there if I must, because its the only place to get what I need, but I don't hang out there with my surplus cash.)  The mall says the buses are hard on their parking lot, I think they are trying to upscale their image and people waiting on buses don't fit, even though some of those people are mall employees. I speak from experience, for I once worked at one of the big box anchor stores at this mall.  (Another reason I am never that keen on going here.)

But we hadn't done anything special for the Girl's birthday, and she wanted to go to the mall,  Moreover some birthday money from Grandma was burning a hole in her pocket. 

Originally we were supposed to be going with a couple of friends from her summer academic enrichment program but we weren't able to coordinate the schedules so I picked her up Friday and headed to the nearest bus stop that would take us to the mall.

Upon arrival our first stop was the aptly named "Glitter" which is a low end Claire's Boutique offering most of their store items for a dollar each. The Girl walked out with a bracelet and earring set, 2 cards of stud earrings, and 3 single pairs of dangling earrings, one stars, one chandelier and the other feathers. She also bought her beloved mom and escort a new ring and a hair pin. All this and she was out the door for less than 10.00.

Next stop was Payless Shoes where the goal was not so much to buy a pair of shoes as it was to try on all the high heels in her size and see how tall they made her. (Being vertically challenged is a fact of life in our family.) Since she has taken pointe classes, being on high heels disturbs her not at all: "Its like demi pointe with support, mom" she has sad. She tried on half a dozen pairs, in each case measuring herself against a slatted wall to see how much taller she was. In the end she decided not to purchase any however, and we worked our way down the mall to the food court. 

Here of course we had to decide on kind of food.  We opted for the Kentucky fried chicken    Some Other Brand Fried Chicken allegedly using same methods.  The Girl had strips while I opted for the first actual fried chicken I had consumed in 2 months.  Just one piece, but it was a little bit of heaven.

 I do catch one break when I go to the mall, because the Girl's asthma keeps us out of the heavily scented stores, no Victoria Secret, no department store perfume counters.  That didn't keep us out of the dollar store however, and we scored some school supplies and nail polish in the colors of her new high school.

By that time we had run out of both money and time, and headed to the bus stop. We were sitting there admiring our purchases and I called attention to the tangle of bling in her bag.  Immediately I received "that look" and was informed "Mom, never ever say bling. Ever. "

Express Yourself Weekly Meme--In Praise of Popcorn

Popcorn, it's gotta be popcorn.

If I've got enough money to go sit in a theatre and watch a movie, then I need to have enough money for at least a small popcorn as well. As far as I'm concerned, it just isn't a going to the movie experience without the popcorn.

At home we snack a lot on popcorn as well. We buy it in bulk from Amish farmers about an hour from our house, so it is always fresh and we have very few unpopped kernels. We cook it on the stove, in a particular frying pan, a  25 year old Farberware that my husband and I received as a wedding present. We put in canola oil and 3 kernels, then wait for them to pop before we put in the popcorn.  Usually we put the finished product into a huge metal bowl, add the butter and salt, then everyone takes what they want.

Popcorn is a wonderful snack, inexpensive, easy to make, and if you don't go crazy with the salt and butter, pretty healthy too.


There's really got to be popcorn, if you want to watch movies with me.

This post is part of  Express Yourself Weekly Meme.  This week they asked, "Whether watching a movie at the theatre or at home, what is your go to snack?"  If you want to learn about other bloggers favorite munchies, click on the link below.

10 Reasons To Visit Gettysburg

I am participating in 31 Days to a Better Blog at Yeah Write. Today's  challenge is to write a list post. Since this weekend is the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, I wanted to look at one of our country's finest historical attractions and why it is such a great place to visit.

1.)  It's family friendly. The various museums, tours and exhibits make it easy for kids to understand the battle. 

2.) Its one of the best preserved battle sites in the country, nearly 6000 acres of  land that is kept as close as possible to the way it was in July of 1863.

3.) The town itself is fun and quirky, with lots of interesting little museums and stores.

 4.) It's easy to get around.  You can walk, take a guided tour, or ride around on the free public transit.  You can also purchase a recorded tour of the battlefield that will guide you in your own car. There are even Segway tours.

 5,) The monuments are cool.  There are hundreds of them, some merely mark the location a group of men stood at, others honor whole states.  Many are moving works of art.

 

 

6. There's lodging for every price range. There are luxury motels, budget motels, and campgrounds.  If you have several families and lots of kids meeting up, the campgrounds are great. 

 

Family reunion

 

On the other hand, when my son and I went, we stayed at a motel right by the battlefield.  We could see the cemetery outside the window.

 

 

 

 

 

7) There are ghosts.  Well they say there are ghosts.  There are tours and a train ride and all sorts of books on the subject.  I am not a psychic person myself, but personally I think that if any place on earth is haunted, it would be Gettysburg.

Boarding the Ghost Train

8) There is plenty of material available to prepare for your trip.  There are books and documentaries and feature films.  If you got out of American History class without reading The Killer Angels, read it. Or watch Gettysburg, the film that was made of the book.  Or Ken Burns' Civil War. Or any of the many writers who treated the battle and the War at even greater length

 

 



9) You can stand where they stood,  There is something extremely moving about standing on Little Round Top or Culp's Hill (the ends of the Union Line) and picture yourself in the shoes of those young men who knew they had to stand their ground or all was lost. 

 

 

 And can one fully appreciate the courage it took for the men in Pickett's command to form a line a mile across and advance in full view against the Union center, without walking their walk?

 

 

And then, upon reaching the other end, to turn around and imagine what the men in blue had seen advancing towards them.

 

 

If you are lucky there will be demonstrations going on when you are there, and you can get a real feel for the noise and smoke and chaos.

 

 

10) You can stand where Lincoln stood, in November of 1863, and made that magnificent speech that in about 200 words defined the country and the war.  You realize that when Lincoln spoke of "These brave men, living and dead" and "The last full measure of devotion" he was looking out at newly dug graves.

 

 

Americans often have a reputation for being ignorant of their history, or unappreciative of the sacrifices made for them.  It's impossible to go to Gettysburg and still be that way.

 











If You Dont LIke Mondays (and who the heck does)

The I Don't Like Mondays Blog Hop and its wonderful host, Linda Roy, recently moved to a new site elleroy was here , I am happy to say all the wit and snark that is a hallmark of her blog survived the transition just fine. 

The Monday blog hop is one of my favorites. Bloggers can link up new or old posts, Monday related or not, happy or otherwise.  Some really good work is being submitted weekly.

This week, in honor of my daughter's birthday this weekend, I decided to revisit the column I wrote last year on her birthday, which was all about the things that moms of teenagers aren't permitted to say or do, unless they wish to totally mortify said teenager and ruin their lives.

So if you'd like to read about "S%*t I'm not allowed to do or say" click here. And if you would like to check what everyone else is posting this week on the I Don't Like Mondays Blog Hop go to elleroy was here--The I Dont Like Mondays Blog Hop.