Happy New Year!

As I write this, it's just turned December 31st. One more day until the New Year! Don't be fooled by my "new" header. It was taken many years ago, during a winter where we actually had snow. Supposedly we are going to get real winter weather in January and February, but I certainly enjoyed the mild weather of December. I'm looking to blog again regularly in 2016. Hopefully I will have some readers around. :)

Great Product Placement

It's not as great as putting chocolate in the aisle with the... women's stuff. But it's great if you like BLTs.

Digging Through the Past

Has it been a rainy late spring/early summer where you live? It certainly has been here. Many of the homes in NE Ohio have basements, which can flood easily in these conditions. My mother's basement, in the house I grew up in, floods very easily, water even coming up through the floor. So my two sisters and I, my daughter the Dancer, and my niece, went through my mom's basement on Saturday, cleaning items out in preparation for some new waterproofing. And to rescue items from the damp and mildew. Yuck! (Not to mention two dead mice in a trap. Fortunately, Mr. BTEG was around by that time to dispose of them.)

There were lots of cool things down there, and some things that should have been disposed of long ago. There were also some things that didn't belong in high humidity, like a picture of a family member from around the turn of the century. Some old newspapers headlining the Allies' victory in Europe, and the first moon landing, were saved by being in a cedar chest. My mother found her high school diploma, graduation tassel, and class picture. We also discovered two pairs of wooden shoes and a white Dutch cap from my mother's visits to Holland, Michigan, where they still promote the Netherlands. Several hats belonging to my grandmother, and a pair of my sister's old character shoes, are going to our local high school drama club. My sisters and I also found a lot of things that were ours when we were girls. There was lots of laughing over old times. I don't want to go through all that work again anytime soon, though, especially not in a humid basement!

All That I Need, To Support This Body and Life

The above is a quote from Luther's Small Catechism, at least the version that I learned from. I suppose it made sense to update the language, but at the same time it was odd for my daughters to be learning something from different from what I had memorized.

I've mentioned before how one of my medicines can elevate cholesterol. My try to switch to a different medication didn't work out, so my psychiatrist has me get a complete blood panel every year. This time, the results showed that I am very low on Vitamin D, so I have to take high units of Vitamin D pills, and I'm also taking fish oil in an attempt to help the triglycerides. I also have to find a primary doctor, again. During the past few years, every primary doctor I've had has left local practice. I imagine being a specialist might be more rewarding. I also need to get walking again. Summer in northeast Ohio is not exactly conducive to outdoor exercise because of the humidity, but I'm trying to walk later in the evening, when at least the sun is mostly down. Such a delicate dance to maintain health!

What's Been Keeping Me Busy

My daughter The Dancer and Mr. BTEG went to the Origins gamer convention in Columbus, Ohio last week. The Dancer wanted to cosplay as Princess Anna from Frozen, so I put together this costume for her. She and her daddy did the painting on the front of the bodice (as well as the back.)

Oh, and Mr. BTEG also had his gall bladder removed last month. That was a thing that took up a bit of my time as well.

Thorn In My Side

Does anyone reading this suffer from endometriosis? I'm so tired of putting up with the effects it has on my body. It was particularly bad again today, and I felt like ranting a little about it, as well as seeing if anyone can commiserate. I'm sure lots of people, especially Mr. BTEG, can relate to having a disease that sometimes disables you from doing things that you want to do, no matter what it is.

Thinking About What My Daughter Said

I was having a text conversation with my eldest daughter the other night. She thinks she might like to be a writer, so she's trying to write a bit every day. Her roommate was out of town working on a play production for a director they both know. The Musician has acted in a local play with this director; it's how she met her roommate. The Musician said that she was a little jealous of her roommate, and I asked her if she had thought about acting in something again. She told me that it's best for now if she focuses on one thing, in this case, her writing.

I thought today how applicable that is to my own life. What is important to me is fashion history, sewing, and the world of doll collecting. In the past, I have felt embarrassed by the doll collecting, the fashion history is only interesting to a few, and I'm not one of those sewers you'll see on Pinterest who comes up with new and exciting projects weekly. But they are what interests me, what drive me to research and do. The people who blog everyday, that's their thing, writing on a blog. While I love to blog here, and am going to keep doing it, I'm not going to feel guilty that I don't come up with something new and witty to write about every day. I'll just post as often as I can.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Although we're not doing anything special here to celebrate it. Was talking to someone the other day that grew up on the east side of Cleveland. She said St. Patrick's Day was not a big deal until she moved the west side. Interesting. We have a parade downtown every year; of course the year I took the girls, it was bitterly cold and that's probably all they remember. The ups and downs of homeschooling. That was also the year St. Patrick's Day was on a Friday, and the leader of the Cleveland Catholic diocese gave a special dispensation to partake of corned beef. :)

Cleveland Playhouse Square District and the Cleveland Hofbräuhaus

I'm back! And I'm going to try to stay. This post puts together a bunch of things revolving around Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. I hadn't been there for years, until the BTEG family watched a performance of Newsies back in November. One of the things that is fairly new is a giant chandelier hanging over an intersection in the Playhouse Square district. You can see the intersection in this article talking about how several places have picked Cleveland as a must-visit site in 2015, partially because of Playhouse Square and said chandelier. I will be glad if Cleveland has success (tired of hearing Cleveland jokes,) but it's strange to me to think that the equivalent of a sparkly coat of paint is enough to make an area that has been, and is still a place to put on shows, more desirable to visit. Of course, people have to visit the Bean when they go to Chicago, and this isn't much different; it's a pretty bauble that's fun to look at.

Another new addition to the Cleveland scene is what is probably one of the hottest restaurants in Cleveland at the moment, the Hofbräuhaus. Unsophisticated me did not know that the restaurant that had devolved into a tourist trap in Munich, has evolved into a restaurant chain here in the US. (I'm not sure who owns what on either side of the Atlantic.) Considering there are only six of these restaurants in the US (plus a restaurant and beer garden in FL,) it is kind of neat that Cleveland got one. Of course, Cleveland had quite a bit of immigration from Germanic settlers. (I believe the greater Cleveland area has one of the largest Transylvanian Saxon populations in the US.) And Cleveland is a town that Loves.Its.Beer. It may hardly be surprising that when we saw Newsies in November, there was a line a good way out the door of people waiting for a table. So when Mr. BTEG told me that his company was hosting its holiday party (yeah, it was in January, because reasons) at the Hofbräuhaus, I was glad to get a chance to visit without standing in a huge line. In the picture above, you can get an idea of what the line looked like that night, except that it was hard to get an accurate picture because the tent enclosure snaked around a corner. Apparently people were standing in that line for well over an hour. Some people were smoking and/or drinking beer, but since I don't do either, I wouldn't have had much fun standing out there in January.

Of course, since we dined in a banquet area upstairs, we did miss seeing the shows that happen in the main restaurant, where apparently performers get up and dance on the tables to oom-pa-pa music, and things of that nature. What we did get was a Germanic decorated atmosphere, fairly good German food, and beer. The men in lederhosen and the women in dirndls were very busy all night bringing very, very large mugs of beer, in mugs that are the same as the ones the Hofbräuhaus in Munich used when Mr. BTEG and I were there. Yep, I know I've mentioned here several times about our study trip in Germany as college students. Mr. BTEG had a friend in Germany who lived in Munich, so one weekend Mr. BTEG and I hopped a train there to visit him, and one of the places we went to was the Hofbräuhaus. Said friend mentioned a few times how much of a tourist trap it was, but it seemed like one of those places-you-have-to-say-you-visited-if-you-go-to-Munich, and we had a good time. Although between Mr. BTEG and I, I don't think we finished the beer in the giant mug.

Neither of us is a big beer drinker

So husband and I have been venturing out of the house this winter and doing a few different things! It's not directly related to having only one daughter at home, but maybe there will be more of these excursions in the future, since our lives are becoming freer.

2015

This may seem obvious, but I had a revelation over the Christmas break as to why so many of my plans for a new year seem to fall so flat, so quickly. That two weeks around Christmas and New Year's Day are ones in which not only does the Dancer not have school, but she also does not have dance, or other activities. I can stay home all day, if I wish, and I have plenty of time to accomplish things. Once we get back to regular life, I find myself not only with less time, but with less energy to do things when I am at home. I need to temper my expectations realistically.

On the other hand, getting the Dancer her driver's license sounds like a very good goal for 2015.