streaming

It has been a few days. Instead of trying to write some boring narrative of exactly what we have been doing, I am going to remain true to my ADD tendencies and share a range of moments/ thoughts and projects.

Item #1: We have just about completed the kitchen (and when I say "we" I mean that I taped and cleaned and Rhonda painted. She had better motor control). It was such a catharsis to strip the wallpaper and transform the room with paint. So much a thrill that I got ahead of myself and started to strip the bathroom wallpaper while in the shower. Yes, I was in the shower when suddenly possessed by a need to strip the wallpaper. Here is what the wallpaper looked like. You see, it had to go. Now we have a half-naked bathroom, stripped down the the paper backing and paint. Still, an improvement.

More important, here is what all of the fixtures including lighting, faucets, towel bars, etc. look like:

Can you name this style? I think the switchplate is actually designed to look like a scroll. Is it medieval? Colonial? ('cause, you know, colonists were really big into decorative switchplates.)

Item #2: We had to take the car to the garage to get this annoying rattle taken care of. The guys were super-nice and charges us only 10 bucks for tightening the heat shield. They did, however, also encounter a large mouse nest in the car -- when the mechanic opened the hood one of "the tenants" scurried away. (I can't help but think about how devastated that mouse-family is by this event. One of them now lives at Jim's All-Care while the others could be scattered at various points between here and there.)

I had to ride my bike back from the mechanic (as we have only one car and want to have only one car). I was struck by how beautiful the ride was. It is only 2.5 miles from our house to the strip mall area where the mechanic is located. Surrounded by fast food joints, a mall, and the ubiquitous Walmart, it was a huge surprise to realize that the swatch of land between stripmall-land and our house is untouched. For now. There are rumors of a Super-Walmart and a Target coming soon.

Item #3:

We went to Green Bay yesterday. This is, perhaps, the thing that makes me feel most like I'm living in the hinterlands. Most people we know drive to Green Bay (56 miles) once or twice a month to do a "big shop." The grocery stores here are notoriously expensive and there is a Woodmans in Green Bay. Woodmans is cool and huge and really cheap. And it is employee owned. It also has the largest cheese section I have ever seen in any store anywhere.

This picture shows Rhonda leaning over one (of four) of the cheese cases. They have everything from Kraft cheese in a box to local organic cheeses. Since we are on a pretty tight budget, we are not buying organics these days. However, we are trying to support local farmers and buying only Wisconsin cheeses.

I was also struck by the fact that you can buy lots of things in very large quantities. Just to give a sense of perspective, these mayo containers were as big as my head. Also, note the large cannister of MSG at the bottom right.

My final observation is more about regional brands. It goes without saying that, when you move from one part of this country to another, you will encounter new, regional brands. There are all kinds of things we have never seen before. However, this has to be one of the strangest. Faygo, a mid-western soda company, has a line of beverages called "Ohana." As indicated on the packaging, "Ohana is Hawaiian for family."

Ohana = family = brand of soda in the midwest.