I am now an official New Englander

Last Saturday night Lincoln and I were invited to my boss's 30th wedding anniversary party. It was a traditional New England clam bake and while I didn't try any clams (or oysters), I did try lobster. Considering I don't eat seafood of any kind I thought this was a HUGE step. It wasn't too bad. I wouldn't rush out and eat it again but I'm glad I can finally say I've tried it.

Lincoln isn't a big lobster fan either so we decided that we would share one. When you go through the line you can stop at a station where a man in a big white apron takes a huge knife to crack your lobster in strategic spots. That was sort of crazy to watch.

Luckily we sat next to a very nice lady who eats lobster all the time. She taught me how to crack open the tail and get the meat out. She also showed me how to remove the "poop line". And yes, that's exactly what it sounds like.

The first picture below is our lobster in its entirety, although a little banged up by the man with the hatchet, on Link's plate. The second picture is of my plate with the lobster tail only. I love the fact that I had lobster, which is very New England, and corn on the cob, which of course is very Iowan, on my plate.

The Iowa Touch

My aunt Bonnie - better known as Sister Bonnie - is celebrating her Golden Jubilee (50 years as a nun) this June. Mom and Dad sent out the party information yesterday which included the hotel room stuff. I called the hotel this morning to book one of the rooms from the block and had a nice chat with the guy at the hotel. While I was doing all of this Lincoln was in the next room with the kids.

Me: Okay, I got the hotel room reserved for Iowa.

Link: You're already booking our Iowa trip for next summer?

Me: No, this is just for Sister Bonnie's jubilee weekend in June. I wanted to make sure we got a room in the hotel block.

Link: It sounded like you were talking to a friend in there.

Me: Well, it is a hotel in small town Iowa. Same thing.

Speaking of...

As stated earlier this morning, there are certain words out here in New England such as pocketbook and cellar that drive me nuts. Other words, like wicked, I have embraced whole-heartily.

Along similar lines, when my cousin Greg and his wife and friends were out here we went for lunch at 11:30 a.m. When he told the hostess we were there for dinner I think that really through her for a loop. She laughed and said "I think you're here a little early for dinner." Actually, as opposed to supper, we were there right on time.

This morning's conversation with Lincoln got me thinking about the different lingo that I've picked up (or been bugged by) throughout my life living in Iowa, Washington, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. Here are a few of my favorites and my biggest pet peeves.

Iowa/Minnesota: Supper and Pop. After 21 years away from Iowa I use these less and less but they still come up in conversation every now and then. The funniest story I have about this is when we took Lincoln's brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece back to Iowa with us for summer vacation a few years ago. When we got to my parents house in Wisconsin they offered them pop and cheese curds. Wha??? I think they were so stunned and confused by the word pop they didn't even hear the part about cheese curds at first.

Washington: Honestly, I can't think of a single thing that I picked up in Washington State other than soda (vs. pop).

Arkansas: Ahh....Arkansas. The land of y'all and fixin'. Y'all was an easy one to pick up but I swore I would never use fixin' until it just slipped out one day and then it was all over but the crying. I love that one. I don't use it as much as I used to but I still enjoy a good "I'm fixin' to go to the store. Do you need anything?" every now and then. One I never did like....and will never embrace....is the use of the word buggy for a shopping cart. A buggy should be something you push your baby in, not your groceries. The other one that made me laugh is coke as a word to cover all soda (Washington), pop (Midwest), or tonic (Massachusetts). As in, "I'd like a coke please." "What kind of kind of coke?" "A Sprite, thanks."

Massachusetts: As previously stated, pocketbook and cellar drive me nuts. So does bureau for a thing you put your clothes in (that's called a dresser in my opinion). I actually don't mind packie so much, it just doesn't come naturally to me. I have, however, fully embraced the word wicked. You can really use it in just about any situation. For example, "This post is wicked random, what the hell is she rambling about?"

Yes, these are the thoughts I have when stuck on my long commute. Similar to my "Ode to Massachusetts Weather" the other day. I really need to find a job closer to home.

On the road

This morning we left for our drive to Iowa. Yes, we're driving to Iowa. It's going to be a long few days but I think we're up to the challenge. And to be honest, we're only going to Madison, WI before we stop for a few nights. Today we're driving as far as Youngstown, OH and then tomorrow night we'll be at Rachel's house in Madison. We're staying with Rachel and Kevin in Madison until Sunday when we head over to Decorah to meet up with Mom and Dad. After a few days in Decorah we'll pack up on Wednesday morning and head up to my aunt and uncle's house on Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. We're spending two nights there before we head back down to Decorah on Friday morning to hand off Hannah for her three week trip with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday evening we'll head back over to Madison for the night before starting the long trip home again next weekend. The four longest days (two out and two back) will be about 12 hours each.

Last night we got the car packed up (more on that in another post) and cleaned the house. My friend Tracy will be housesitting for us while we're gone so not only did we have to get packed last night but we had to clean the bathrooms, vacuum the house, and change the sheets. When we were packing up the car last night we let Jake play in the front seat and he entertained himself rolling the windows up and down and opening the sunroof. Of course that meant the key had to be in the ignition and of course we forgot to turn it off last night so when we came out at 5:15 a.m. this morning we discovered the passenger side window down, the sunroof open, the keys in the ignition, and, of course, a dead battery. That threw a little bit of a kink in our schedule for this morning but we ended up leaving at 6:22 a.m. instead of our scheduled 6:00 a.m. and I can certainly live with that.

The car is fully loaded with toys, games, a DS Nintendo, two DVD players and plenty of books. Hopefully that should keep all of us entertained as we drive halfway across the country over the next two days. Hannah is happily watching a movie right now and Jake started out with the DS but said "I'm bored with this" before we even got to the end of our street. I also asked him if he wanted to take a pillow in the car and he thought about it very seriously for a few seconds and then said "Nahhh.....I don't think I'm going to sleep." He truly has no concept of how long we're going to be in the car. The other nice thing we have with us is Lincoln's laptop. Right now we're cruising down I-84 through Connecticut and I have the laptop booted up in my lap with a Verizon Wireless card plugged into the side. Of course what this means for everyone who reads this blog is that you'll be getting LOTS of updates over the next few days as we head westward. After breakfast today I'll try to load some pictures and video that I took earlier this morning.

Making memories the Iowan way

On Saturday night when we were down at the Vineyard Hannah and I volunteered to shuck the corn on the cob for dinner. I actually volunteered to do it because I have fond memories of doing it as a kid in Iowa and Hannah volunteered to help me.

Me: You know Hannah, there is a picture of me and Grandpa Dan doing this on Grandma Lentz's porch when I was a little girl.

Hannah: There is?

Me: Yep.

Hannah: When I grow up, and I have a little girl, I'm going to tell her all about sitting on the porch and shucking corn with my Mommy.

So here we are. Three generations of corn shuckers.

Reason 978 why Iowa is way better than Massachusetts

In Iowa a pitcher a beer is $5 at Mabe's.

In Massachusetts:

Small Town America

I love coming back to visit Iowa. It's a place that really is sort of stuck in time and I mean that in the best possible way. It's a slower more peaceful way of life where things are easier and certainly simple. When we got to Elma the other day my Dad took us out to the Mennonite Auction. Apparently this is an auction that takes place 3 times a week. Farmers, both Mennonite and non-Mennonite, bring in pick-up truck and tractor wagons full of produce to be auctioned off. There is everything from tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash to huge potted mums. You have to buy things in huge bulk lots but they go for super cheap. On one side of the building you see tractors and pick-ups lined up. On the other side of the building you see big semi trucks just waiting to load up the veggies and truck them to various grocery stores and restaurants. It's actually a really neat process to watch. Here are a bunch of photos that I took from my camera phone. I was really bummed that I left my camera at home but these pictures turned out better than I thought they would.