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.

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.

Blessings

Before I get into any other kinds of posts, I feel it's important to put up one of thankfulness for the wonderful Christmas that the BTEG family had. There were wonderful gifts, good food, and enjoying being with family. Now we are enjoying being home together, including Mr. BTEG because of the inclement weather. I pray that there have been no great losses due to the blizzard.

Here's a picture of one of the nice gifts that I received, a new bicycle, in pretty blues and pinks. Come spring, I can be walking or bicycling!

Something Different

One of the things I am finding I like about Mr. BTEG's current job, is that people are relatively social outside of work. Tuesday night a group of Mr. BTEG's co-workers and their wives got together at a bar called Happy Dog, in Cleveland. I hadn't been in that area of Cleveland before that I can remember, and there was a very interesting atmosphere, urban, but not scary urban as certain areas of Cleveland can be.

Anyway, a very interesting night. There was classical music, and a trio singing Christmas carols (the bass was sick), all from the Cleveland Institute of Music. I think I'd like to try it when a different music genre was there. I guess I'm totally uncool, but most of the modern classical stuff didn't really cut it for me. Especially one piece where either the piano was wildly out of tune, or there were notes that deliberately sounded grating to the ear. Physically painful, even.

We had a chance to see hipsters in their natural habitat. Lots of them. I took anthropological notes. :D

For some reason, I really found it funny that atop the upright piano, was a bust lamp of Elvis. A very large bust of Elvis. In blues. The lampshade shook when the modern classical musicians were pounding on the piano keys, but Elvis stayed solid.

This bar serves hot dogs, tater tots and french fries, and beer. However, you can get about thirty different toppings for your hot dogs and tater tots. Including mole, the Mexican chocolatey stuff. Which, no.

I found it interesting that the cellist, who looked very Korean, was named Carlos.

Cravings

The week or so of solid gray skies and steady rain that came as a result of Hurricane Sandy made one thing clear to me: I do have Seasonal Affective Disorder. By the end of the week I was barely functional. My brain worked well enough to click a computer mouse, and that was about it.

I've always suspected that I had SAD. After all, winter is the hardest time of the year for me, emotionally. February was the month when I reached an breaking point bad enough to land me in a mental hospital. But the bad weather last month compressing it all into a solid week really convinced me. I've been pretty good about upping my Vitamin D consumption in the winter, but since we are blessed enough to have very good health insurance coverage at the moment, my psychiatrist is supporting me in trying phototherapy. Mr. BTEG is working through the insurance channels/hoops to get a light box. I'll probably update when we get one, after I've used it for a while.

My other struggle, besides craving sunlight, is craving carbs. I haven't talked about it here, but late this summer, I started eating less, trying to cut back on carbs, cutting out as much high fructose corn syrup as possible, and walking. I did manage a little bit of weight loss. But now my ankle injury has messed up my walking habit, and as winter comes on I find myself craving carbs as I haven't in a long time. Mr. BTEG, who did some research on light boxes and SAD, tells me that craving carbs in the winter is nature's way of putting us into a sort of hibernation. Well, I was certainly in hibernation mode after that week of gray and rain. But I can't do that all winter. Maybe the phototherapy will help with the carb cravings.

Oh, and Mr. BTEG also discovered that light therapy can cause someone who is bipolar to go into a manic state, or a mixed state. Swell. My mixed states are the worst ones of all. I guess we'll have to play that one by ear as well. Happy Winter!

Sending Out a Dove

Yesterday around dinnertime we got power back, after having it out since Monday evening. We survived, although we have now have a larger laundry and dishes backlog than usual. The Dancer and the Musician had school off yesterday due to power outages. Only the Dancer is at home keeping me company today.

There has been damage in the area, mostly due to downed trees and the inevitable flooded basements. I don't see any reports of loss of life in this area, which is a blessing. Areas south of us got snow. I think Lake Erie is still too warm for us to get any snow -- yet.

Halloween trick-or-treating has been moved to Sunday evening, which is also a good thing. Otherwise, all the girls, at least, could have been dressed like Mary Poppins: carrying umbrellas and being blown by the wind down the street.

Having no power all day, we went out to dinner last night. The restaurant we chose was totally slammed, but considering that the biggest shopping metropolis in the area, Crocker Park, was without power, I doubt we could have avoided a crowd anywhere else. We did get a free appetizer and an extra salad out of the deal due to confusion. I hope the servers raked in a higher than usual amount of money for a Tuesday night.

Eat Mor Chikin

As you can probably guess, I went to my local Chick-Fil-A today and picked up some yummy food. I passed by about half an hour earlier, and the line of cars was spilling out into the street. By the time I got back, there were no cars in the street, but there was still a line of cars completely around the building before even getting into the drive-thru line. And there was a long line of people around the building, who were smiling, happy and enjoying hanging out.

It was nice knowing that we who value First Amendment speech are not alone. As I pointed out to my daughter on the car ride home, it is not just Christians who need to worry about losing their freedom of speech. In this case, it was.

I'm sorry I can't write anymore right now. I'm finding it really hard to concentrate lately. More about that later.

Life's Little Oddities

For a desperately needed mental lift for the Evil Genius, three members of the Evil Genius family went to our nearest Winking Lizard restaurant. As we were seated, surrounded by large televisions, I was irked that the baseball game on was between the evil Red Sox and the even eviller Yankees. So we get the game on our TV turned to the Indians. Heaven. So there I am watching the game, eating a delicious Angus burger, jamming to a cool song (it was Pulling Mussels by Squeeze if you must know) and I realize my husband and the Dancer are not really into the game (or the music.) Not only that, but I start watching a preseason football game on another television involving the Evil Team that my husband roots for, and he's not interested in that either. I love Mr. Evil Genius more than anyone else, but not only am I the biggest sports fan in the house, but the man of the house isn't really all that big on sports. Heh.

Oh, and my family really hates it when I jump up and down screaming while one of the Browns runs into the endzone. Yelling and sticking my hands up in the air when an Indians player goes yard is slightly more tolerated.

Garden Woes

The container gardening hasn't been an entire failure, but it hasn't been as successful as I envisioned late this spring. I think we'll get one pepper off of the pepper plant. Anyone know if this is normal? We are getting tomatoes, but due to a failure to stake the plants better as they got taller, we won't get as many tomatoes as we should have. The Dancer is at least enjoying a few tomatoes every few days. The oregano looks rather sad. I suppose we may be able to chop what there is, up. Strawberries failed to materialize.

The problems as I see them were: 1. An especially rainy spring. The plants got overly soggy to the point where they were sitting in water. We did our best to drain the containers and moved the plants in when it rained, but the responsibility of lugging containers around, I think became discouraging.
2. Our patio faces south. This discourages us from spending much time out there, thus kind of forgetting about the plants. I would like to get some kind of large umbrella or other shade, but the cost is rather prohibitive.

Oh, and I planted some lilies-of-the-valley in front, in the shade. There didn't seem to be much to them, just a scrawny bit of root. I have lost all hope of them since the landscaping crew that maintains our development came and dumped a bunch of mulch on top of these little twigs sticking up. I wonder if transplanting some larger plants from someone who has some would work better. I think I mentioned before that I tried lilies before many years ago and got nothing then as well.

The price of food being what it is, I still think it is worth giving container gardening another try next spring. Actually, I would like to get some more containers so that we can grow more food. We'll see where things stand next spring. I will also put some ornamental bulbs in this fall.

Out of the House

Had a Girl's Night Out with a friend tonight. Every time I have one, I realize all over again how much I need them, and resolve to do it more often. Well, my friend and I probably will be meeting again soon, but I need to get out more as well, with family or friends. When I'm at home I think I tend to turn inward too much, and brood. Yes, my family, and I, have problems, but fretting over them won't do anything to solve them. Of course, I don't have any ideas for solutions, either. But I'm tired after my big night out, and Tomorrow Is Another Day.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Remember that little container garden that we started earlier this spring? Well, we have been getting so much rain that we have to drag the containers under shelter so they do not get any more water. I can only hope farmers' fields are draining better than our little pots. We don't need the price of food to go up more than it has! As it is, I'm hoping we can plant more containers next year. I discovered our town has a small community garden, but I think all the plots are taken. There is still a bit of open land in this area, now that I think about it. I wonder if more of it will be reverting back to farmland?

Mother, Madre, Mutter

How will you celebrate Mother's Day? At La Casa de Evil Genius, we'll have a meal with my favorite foods: steak, potatoes and bread. Yes, I'm still a Philistine when it comes to food, and I don't think that will change.

Honestly, I never wanted to be anything other than a wife and mother. Yes, I do have my own interests and activities, but I wanted the main focus of my life to be caring for my family and for our home. Most of the time, I don't regret it at all. Sometimes I feel like the world has left me behind, but one of the benefits of having a loving family is having the strength of the others to draw on when one member is feeling discouraged. And after all, my husband and daughters are the ones for whom I work, so if they are happy, I can't be doing too badly, I suppose. :)

Trapped

I have little to no energy during the day. I get major things done, like dishes, shopping, and driving Mr. BTEG and the girls to where they need to be. Otherwise, I'm a slug. Then, too many late evenings, I am wide awake and full of energy. I'm already taking all of my medications at night, because they can cause drowsiness.

I'm trying to exercise during the day. It's not going very well. Walking bores me to tears, so I have to force myself to do it, and I don't have good shoes to walk in. I am trying to do some ballet, because I actually like that, but my body was complaining, so now I am trying to do stretches beforehand. I feel chunky and awkward doing ballet, even though I find it interesting, but it is not exactly aerobic, either. I used to love to bicycle, but don't have a bike and can't afford a bike, plus it's not practical for a good portion of a year in Ohio anyway. It's not a sufficient excuse, but I don't really have an athletic body. I am not only short, but I have short legs proportionate to my body as well. I feel awkward and funny-looking.

I'm trying to eat better, but it's difficult being such a picky eater. I have to literally force myself to eat a few grapes or some broccoli with dressing or butter. And those are tastes which I can live with. I wonder if my eating affects my energy, but I'm not sure of a correlation. For example, I got no real exercise today and my eating was only so-so, I was blah today but right now my mind is racing and I'm feeling more awake than I have all day.

I'm seeing my psychiatrist soon, so I will talk to her, but I'm not sure what will come of it. The main issue seems to be that I am mostly stable. Other than that, you get told to exercise or handed a pamphlet on healthy eating. I need a little bit of extra help and I'm not sure where to get it.

Picky PIcky

I was surprised and slightly heartened to see this article about picky eaters. It's nice that someone even floats the idea that picky eaters are not people who just don't want to eat healthy food, or who just don't want to try new things. I'm a little miffed at the speculation later on, however, that picky eaters may still be made, not born, by unpleasant experiences at the dinner table or stomach issues. They still can't quite bring themselves to accept picky eaters completely, it seems.

My name is Barb the Evil Genius, and I am a picky eater. It started in babyhood, when my skin turned yellow. My concerned mother took me to the doctor, only to find out that I did not have jaundice. Instead, it was my refusal to eat strained green vegetables that led to my skin tone. My current general practitioner is skeptical about the tale, although I have met another extremely picky eater who claimed her skin turned orange as a child, for the same reason.

Later on, when I graduated to solid food, I lived for a time on hot dogs and applesauce, being all that I would eat. It's easy to say, now, that my mom should have simply waited until I was really hungry. A neighbor tried this with my youngest sister, who refused to take a bottle. My sister outlasted the neighbor, and screamed for what she wanted the whole time to boot.

I am blessed to be able to say that my picky eating has not negatively affected my marriage or my social life. I did get scolded once on a college group outing to Louisiana and back, when a Chinese restaurant was chosen one night for dinner. I don't really eat Chinese, and there were protests as to why I hadn't spoken up. It was difficult for me to explain that I hadn't really wanted any of the other choices, either. And I didn't want to chain the entire group to my pickiness.

Mr. BTEG urges me to try new foods, but it's not a relationship issue if I don't like something. Occasionally the family will go out for something like Chinese, and I will eat something from somewhere else. It's not the end of the world. I will admit I can now eat sweet and sour fried chicken (hold the sweet and sour) and white rice, but not enough to really fill me. My daughters also eat more kinds of food than I do, although they also have likes and dislikes. My eldest currently favors a four-alarm level of spices, but then she ate salsa with a spoon when she was two.

I do find it interesting that we picky eaters tend to have very similar tastes in what we eat and drink. To me, it points toward the idea that we are indeed wired differently somehow when it comes to eating. I also look to the example of a pastor we used to know, who had his own taste preferences. He did not care to eat anything sugary. To him, it all just tasted like... sugar. No variation in the flavor experience. However, he could not get enough salt. That always tasted wonderful to him. For me, I have to agree with the final quote of the article: "We don't all have the same experience when we eat."

Food for Thought

Just read on Facebook that the Mythbusters are going to be doing a show with President Obama. I love the show, and I am so disappointed in this. Mythbusters should not involve politics. I don't want to know which way Jamie and Adam's politics fall, and I take this news to confirm what I strongly suspected, that they are leftists, perhaps even with socialist leanings. With this administration charging into socialist territory, and the Mythbusters being filmed in a very blue area of California, I suspect the cast of Mythbusters does lean socialist, but I really didn't want to know either way.

The President is also a very divisive figure right now. Even die-hard Democrats are starting to lose enthusiasm, although they often blame it on staff, rather than the top guy. Why make a decision that will make a good bit of your audience unhappy with the show?

As I was thinking over this, I remembered that the cable show Cake Boss did an episode where the bakery made a cake for Governor Chris Christie. I wouldn't ask Buddy to turn down such a offer that would give him publicity in high places, but if we're going to be fair, that shouldn't have shown on television as well, I guess. Am I being partisan when I feel that Buddy was making a very lucrative and high-recognition business transaction, while the Mythbusters are very likely (to me) doing this for the "ooh, we get to do a show with the Lightworker" factor? Buddy's cake reflected a lot of pride in his home state, at least, as well as being for the Governor. As I read on the linked webpage, Mythbusters has already tried this myth *twice*. Why do it again?

Am I overreacting? I doubt the Mythbusters would *do* a show with Governor Christie, or with someone like Sharron Angle or Sean Bielat. I wonder if Buddy would make a cake for anybody.

A Slice of America

One of my college professors, an immigrant from Germany, said that she didn't completely understand American culture because she hadn't gone to an American high school. That may or may not be true, but as I attend high school football games with an adult eye, I realize how much of it is uniquely American. Now, American football is played in places outside of the United States. As a matter of fact, a team from Canada came down to our area to play earlier this month. Of course, the article shows that there is still a difference in popularity between football here, and anywhere else.

Are high school age level marching bands a mainly American thing? I did a little searching on the internet and couldn't find much on foreign marchers. I have read that teenage sports can be taken as seriously in other countries as high school athletics here. However, is there that "Friday night lights" feel? The cheerleaders, the marching bands, Homecoming, the age level of spectators--from octogenarians to toddlers? Do school boosters have concession stands, serving local versions of our pizza, hot dogs and popcorn? Do other countries have similar jock/cheerleader stereotypes?

I am having fun attending all these high school games. I'm also finding I enjoy watching football at the high school level.

The Whirlwind of Life

Life has not slowed down; it has instead gotten more hectic. I think I have been more tired in the last couple of days than I have been my entire life. Sure, in high school and college, I burned the candle at both ends often, but I was also a lot younger and so I think I bounced back more quickly. The past couple of days I was operating on auto-pilot, and not doing well when I had to go off-course. This caused a lot of laughter for those around me, especially when I ended up asking for scrambled pancakes at the IHOP yesterday.

Friday night was the first high school football game, and the Musician's first night in the marching band. The place was absolutely packed, on both sides, since the rival high school directly adjoins our town. I find it interesting the way they have the home team stands set up. One section was for season ticket holders (yes, seriously,) three sections were general admission, one section was for the high schoolers, and one section was for students at the middle school and intermediate school.

We saw quite a few people we knew. Our GP was there, our favorite phlebotomist (who is now a stay-at-home mom and who we called our vampire,) a young man who works at the local grocery store, and of course lots of teachers and students the girls know. Thursday night a young woman who taught the Musician's riding classes came to the marching band preview. She could very well have been in the crowd on Friday night, since the place was so full you couldn't see everyone.

Mr. BTEG worked one of the concession stands Friday night; the profits go to the band, and all band parents have to help with some of the fundraisers. Yes, fundraisers can be a pain. On the other hand, our band room is beautifully appointed, the uniforms are nice, and we don't have a pay-to-play system like some local schools do. Concessions did a booming business; they were pretty much out of everything by the time the game ended. Some other group was doing a Krispy Kreme fundraiser which also seemed very popular. I will have to find out where the donuts are next time!

This was my first Friday night football game! My high school had so little money at the time I attended that our football field did not have lights, so all games were on Saturday afternoon.

It seems to me that people give more readily when there is some sort of incentive. There was a Souper Bowl fundraiser for local food pantries that pitted the two schools competing against each other to see who could raise the most in money and nonperishable food donated. It did spectacularly well. Human nature, I suppose. Our side won the fundraiser, which is just as well, as the football team played poorly and lost the actual game. :)

Television and Real Life

I am very tired of seeing ads for the new television show on TV Land called "Hot in Cleveland." I suppose we are supposed to favor it since it is ostensibly based on our town. To be honest, I haven't watched it. I don't watch much television in any case. I've just seen one clip, where the hot chicks from out of town are shocked and thrilled when one of their male escorts for the evening remarks something along the lines of, "Just cheese fries? You're a light eater." Not sure if that is a supposed to be a positive or negative towards Cleveland, but there certainly are different approaches to life and eating across the country.

A couple of years ago we hosted some friends and their daughter at our place. They both had lived in California for a number of years, but the wife had lived there far longer. For dinner, we served a roast and vegetables that had been thrown in with the roast. The dinner was enjoyed by all, but the wife commented that in California, they'd have been given something more along the lines of a salad. Ah well. I take C.S. Lewis' attitude that different locales can each appreciate the things they like best, as long as they refrain from attacking others' choices.

Life in 2010

Yesterday the house was full as my in-laws came in from Youngstown. Fortunately, they brought all the food, including a pork roast, kielbasa and sauerkraut. I really wasn't prepared to do a lot of cooking. My sister-in-law covets my kitchen. I'm rather fond of it myself.


I've become rather attached to this house. It's ending up, though, that the main living of the house is being done down the basement, while I prefer to stay upstairs and soak up as much natural light as possible. I guess we'll still have to work things out. On the other hand, the treadmill is downstairs, and I used it today! Not for very long, but it's a good start. This treadmill seems odd, though. Like it was made for running. The very slowest setting is about the fastest I can keep up with it. Well, it's worth every penny we paid for it! :)

This Post Brought to You By the Letter

Arrrrrr! Yes, once again it is Talk Like a Pirate Day! And how convenient that it takes place on the same day as Beer, Brats & Bride, an event started by a group of crazy Lutheran homeschooling moms where groups of friends get together to drink beer, eat brats and watch The Princess Bride at precisely 4 PM. The Dread Pirate Roberts takes no prisoners, matey!