In Preparation for Another Adventure

Yes, I am embarking on yet another European adventure, hopefully not in the National Lampoon style! Fr. Miller and a friend of his from Minneapolis got a trip together of the Italian Renaissance. We will be touring the cities and sites in Venice, Florence and Rome. Since it is taking place during the harvest season, Mike will not be joining me so another farm wife from the area -- Cindy Pistek -- is going with me. So I am in the throes of figuring out what to take and also trying to get my house (physical and spiritual) in order before I leave. I have been asked by a fellow parishoner to keep another blog journal like I did the last Rome trip. Apparently they want to keep tabs on our good Fr. Miller! Since technology has advanced in the last few years and I have gotten new "toys", I have been trying to figure out how I can do all of this without taking my laptop along. So I have been doing some research on just how this can be accomplished.

The first step I knew I needed if I was to take my Kindle Fire was to enable myself to type in a proficient manner, a.k.a. a normal keyboard. I got online and did a little research and read some reviews and purchased a keyboard to connect wirelessly with my Kindle Fire. I must say it works like a charm -- I'm typing on it right now!!! It has a great touch and was easy to set up. I then needed to find a way to get the pictures easily from my camera to my Kindle so I did a little more research and discovered the Eye-Fi card. I can take the pictures and when my camera is close to the Kindle it connects via wi-fi and automatically downloads the pictures onto my Kindle. The only problem is that I have to change my wi-fi setting off the Eye-fi setting and back to my local wireless network. Now the only thing that may hold me back would be the ability or inability to obtain a wi-fi connection while in Italy. I might have to do some research on the hotels we are staying at to see what they offer. The last time we were there, we had to pay for the internet by the day at the hotel.

Since it has been ages since I last posted in the blog, I will start by just posting a few recent happenings. It's back to school time so that means Micah headed off for his final year at Loras last Sunday. As you can see in the pics, everyone was pretty happy on this occasion but apparently Gabby was the happiest of all! Both Micah and Gabby started classes on Monday. Gabby is going back to school to get her nursing degree at NIACC so she is cutting back on her hours at Caseys and keeping her part-time hours at Good Samaritan in Forest City. Keep them both in your prayers as they each enter new phases of their lives.

Gabby is living with us and for the past few months has been working her fool head off between two jobs. Sometimes she got up and made donuts etc. at Casey's at the 3 a.m. shift and then went to work at the nursing home at the 2 p.m. shift, I don't know how she did it -- must be the fact that she is so much younger than I am!

Since I am trying to get about 10 lbs. below my "normal" weight before I go on my trip to Pasta and Gelato world, I decided to try a new recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth. I tried a recipe for Raspberry Fool. Using my Ninja blender I pureed the raspberries and with the preparation bowl of the Ninja I whipped the cream with the Truvia and vanilla. I decided to use my fancy Fostoria dishes and placed a spoonful of the pureed raspberries in the bottom of each and then folded the rest of the raspberries into the whipped cream. Then I poured the whipped cream mixture into each of the dessert cups and garnished with a raspberry and -- voila'! I saw these Fostoria dishes in antiques and collectibles stores in Clear Lake while Gabby and I were wandering about last weekend. I remembered that I had quite a few pieces and have decided to try and figure out ways to use them -- no sense them just sitting in the cupboard! Some of the plates were selling for as much as $16.75 a piece, I had better appreciate them. They were given to me by my Great Aunt Tray so there is some sentimental value there.

Since I am curious to know just how this blog post is going to work with my Kindle I am going to end my most interesting week here -- oh, how I miss being able to use sarcasm. My husband and his family don't truly appreciate it and it is somewhat frowned upon in the customer service business so I must refrain as much as I can! Well, let's see how this post goes....drum roll please!