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11.30.03 — Post-turkey update
It's been a busy week. Here's a recap. The snow was a non-event.
And we have switched from weather.com to accuweather.com. Weather.com
called for snow all day Sunday. There was none. If the link to
the right calls for a zip code the first time you visit, it's
68516.
 Wednesday
I made two pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. Making two pies is much
more difficult than making one. It was touch and go for awhile,
but I managed to get them under control. We went to Fireworks
for dinner, and the Mill
for coffee afterwards. A nice birthday celebration. Thanks to
everyone for the flowers,
cards and phone calls. I had just spent my first few days in Lincoln
by myself (T had to make a trip to Arizona) and I was feeling
a little out of sorts. All of your birthday wishes made me feel
great!
Thanksgiving we spent with the Masts. It was a fun day. We played
games, talked, and had a fabulous dinner. It was a new tradition
with our new "Lincoln family." Friday evening we went
downtown to Haymarket
for the start of the holiday season. The streets and buildings
were lit, Santa was walking around, and there were folk dancers,
a band, and free trolley rides. We ate dinner at The
Oven, the second Indian
eating experience since we've been in town. It was much better
than the Taj Mahal, and than T had led me to think. We ordered
Malai Kofta, which were rich and tasty, and Lamb Madras, which
was very tender. The breads were good—and normal sized—but
we have to remember to ask for our breads without butter. The
Mulligatawny soup was fabulous. We stuck with the Flying Horse
lager, since the Taj Mahal beer out here seems different than
back East. I'd give it three stars.
Saturday we went to Prior
Pines to get our Christmas tree. It was warm out, at least
50 degrees. Last year we drove 1 1/2 hours to Mayne Farm in Buckeystown,
MD and froze our butts off to get our tree. This year we drove
15 minutes north of town, and didn't even need a coat. Interesting
differences. We usually get a fir tree, but here they are imported
from Wisconsin, so we got a pine instead. We trimmed it last night
and it looks nice.
11.22.03 — First snow
It is going to snow tonight. There doesn't sound like there will
be a lot of accumulation for Lincoln, but the wind gusts are expected
to reduce visibility tomorrow to 1/2 or 1/4
mile. We have to go to the store today. It will be interesting
to compare Nebraskans to Marylanders with regards to milk, bread
and toilet paper. (By the way, it was 70 degrees two days ago.
Hey Mother Nature—what's up with that?)
We have learned two new weather terms
this week. "Ice pellets" and "plowable snow".
Ice
pellets are similar sleet,
according to weather.com's glossary. Google searches show plowable
snow is two inches or more. It's weird. We've had plenty of snows
in Maryland that were more than two inches, but never heard them
referred to as a "plowable event." The words are even
superimposed over the different weather bands on the map, with
the weather man making a big deal about two plowable events crossing
in South Dakota. (They are getting lots of snow this weekend.)
On a different note, we went to Hooters last night for wings.
I don't usually like going to Hooters, but we weren't in the mood
for a chain with lots of "flair" on the walls. Sad to
say, the wings weren't that good. And the poor girls just looked
cold dressed in those outfits in November.
11.19.03 — In the kitchen
 I
made a pumpkin pie last week. And it was really good! I know,
it's hard to believe. We will be spending Thanksgiving with the
Masts, and I offered to make the pies. I just needed to do a trial
run to make sure I could handle it.
Before you think I've become a little baker, I also tried to
make wheat bread a few weeks ago, which turned out more like a
wheat brick. Last Sunday I made white bread (the way Kasia taught
me) and had better luck. It's a very tasty bread to eat with soup,
but not so great for sandwiches. Although T has been gracious
enough to eat it without complaining.
I also made Pad Prik Khing last Friday, which was the surprise
for T that I mentioned below. It was essentially
Beth's recipe,
but I doubled it, used the entire can of red curry paste, and
added a can of coconut milk (thus, removing the healthy factor
from her version). We don't have a lot of ethnic restaurants around
here, and we've been craving something a little different than
meat and potatoes or Mexican. I had never attempted a Thai recipe
before, and it really wasn't difficult. You just need to find
the right ingredients. Who would have thought it would be so easy
to find them in Nebraska?
11.17.03
Guilty.
[My original link was to a story on wtop.com, which has moved,
so I've updated it with a link from washingtonpost.com.]
11.16.03
Fast Food in Lincoln: We have the
normal fast food fare here, including Wendy's, Taco Bell, and
Burger King, although no Chik-fil-a. But we also have some very
unique-to-Lincoln fast food experiences. Two of the only McDonald's
3'n1 restaurants in the world are located here. I haven't
been to eat, just to stop in for a soda. It was a little weird
seeing people at tables ordering by phone.
The other, more popular fast food option is Runza.
Aside from the best fast food cheeseburger I've ever had, they
have a special sandwich called The
Runza. It's meat and onions baked into a fresh bun. It's pretty
tasty. Not quite a cheesesteak, not quite a cheeseburger. They're
famous here. If you ask a Nebraskan who has been out of state
for awhile what they miss most, there's a good chance they'll
say a Runza (if they haven't had frozen Runzas shipped
to them)!
11.15.03
Today is the last home game of the season.
There is a lot of hoopla surrounding today: It's Herbie Husker's
30th birthday, plans for enhancements to the stadium will be displayed
for the public, and its the last home game for the seniors. Just
in case you think we're getting too caught up in Husker-life,
we'll be going to the grocery store during the game. It's the
best time to go shopping; the stores are deserted.
But, we are wearing red.
11.09.03
Photo album preview: I've posted
pictures from the Husker
game against Iowa State and day-to-day
pictures of unpacking. They will be part of the next Lincoln Update,
along with photos from F1 and our trip to the vineyard.
11.07.03
Big news in Lincoln. The Huskers' Memorial Stadium is getting
a major overhaul.
11.05.03
Happy Birthday, Little Ladybug!
So I have my first traffic rant since leaving the
DC area. I was headed to the post office yesterday (Yes, I found
a real one close by, and I don't have to mail my packages from
the card store anymore.) and I had to sit at a light while a freight
train passed through. I had to sit for maybe three or four minutes;
it was going like 10 mph. Sheesh! Let's compare that to my
last traffic rant. Sitting on New York Ave. for an hour (not during
rush hour) hoping to make my dentist appointment on time. Hmmm.
Suddenly the train rant doesn't sound so bad.
I also spent a few hours exploring
the Asian grocers up on O St. I can't find any Indian grocers
in town. There's a Middle Eastern grocer that is a bit creepy.
They carry some SWAD
spices, and I know this stuff is packaged in India (or it says
so on the label), but the stuff on the shelves looked as if it
had been sitting on the dirt ground at an outside market and hadn't
sold so they shipped it here. The packaging was beat up and a
lot of the powdered spices were all clumped. On a positive note,
the Asian grocers were really cool. Very authentic, which kind
of creeped me out with regards to fish sauce. At Giant,
fish sauce came as a nice, neat liquid in a small bottle. The
real stuff is more like a paste with actual fish bits in it. And
they are the icky bits. I wimped out and got the liquid for a
recipe that I am making next week as a surprise for T. I'll post
more about it later, once I've made the dish.
11.03.03
Because the sky is so big out here, the sunny days are really
beautiful. But the cloudy days are really gray. Nowhere near as
beautiful as the sunsets. (I took
this in the early afternoon.)
11.01.03
Happy Birthday, Mom!
So, we had five trick-or-treaters, and have a lot of candy left
over. Good thing we didn't open the bag of Twix bars. I'm going
to try and take those back. It's not good to have so much candy
around the house. Maybe it was because it was 30 degrees and breezy
last night. Too cold to go out and ask for candy.
Good thing the Huskers are in Texas today. It's in the mid 80s
in Austin, and they have a misting machine blowing cool water
on the players. It will only be in the low 40s here today. Brrr!
Last month's Blog.
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