tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-376957772024-03-19T06:16:11.864-04:00Mae's Food BlogMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.comBlogger4001125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-45674747562652531022024-03-17T09:00:00.009-04:002024-03-17T09:00:00.273-04:00Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!Shamrocks at our local garden store.At Trader Joe’s: shamrocks wrapped up for St. Patrick’s Day.Shamrocks that we saw in Ireland.On St. Patrick's Day I love to think about the times we have traveled in Ireland. Our trips have always been centered in Galway because my brother has spent several sabbatical years working at the university there, so we were there at least four times. We managed to Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-91776876068753847112024-03-16T00:16:00.001-04:002024-03-16T00:16:53.852-04:00Weekend Update Recent ReadingHelp Wanted, published March 5, 2024.Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman has the clarity of a fable. I enjoyed reading it both as social commentary and as a good story of individuals struggling to make it in a society that hasn’t given them many opportunities. Virtually the entire novel takes place in the present time (mid-2020s) in a big-box store, part of a chain called Town Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-60129898829578003032024-03-15T07:18:00.001-04:002024-03-15T07:18:49.244-04:00TurtlesOf Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery (published September, 2023)Of Time and Turtles is mainly about the work of a turtle rescue center where injured turtles have their broken bones and shells repaired and are nursed back to health. If all goes well, these turtles can be returned to their native habitat. If they can’t recover enough to live wild again, they are given a permanent home at the Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-38557784417699142332024-03-14T11:23:00.000-04:002024-03-14T11:23:44.485-04:00Pie — $3.14 a slice for 𝞹 DayIt’s Pi Day — also Pie Day. We celebrate 𝞹. And Zingerman’s Bakehouse offers slices for $3.14.As you probably learned in elementary math classes, 𝞹 is the ratio of the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The symbol 𝞹 (the Greek letter, Pi) has been used to represent this ratio since 1706, though the mathematical ratio had been known for centuries. In fact: “As a ratio, pi Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-71368399554040244962024-03-13T06:30:00.002-04:002024-03-13T06:30:00.143-04:00Coffee Magic“The coffee served at the café was made from mocha beans grown in Ethiopia, which have a distinct aroma. But it didn’t appeal to everybody’s tastes—though deliciously aromatic, some found its bitter fruitiness and complex overtones a little overbearing. On Nagare’s insistence, the café only served mocha.” (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, p. 67)“When Nagare made coffee, he usually brewed it using theMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-8173919070763382342024-03-11T15:30:00.132-04:002024-03-11T15:30:00.240-04:00Saturday AfternoonSaturday we decided to have lunch at a local restaurant called BigaLora.BigaLora’s specialty is pizza. We chose the one called “Agrodolce” which means sweet-and-sour in Italian. It had bits of red sweet-sour-peppery garnish along with house-made sausage, but it was a “white” pizza meaning no tomato sauce, just a nice deeply browned crust. Of course I ordered a Diet Coke.Before the pizza we had Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-9679269210683033132024-03-10T10:30:00.061-04:002024-03-10T10:30:00.203-04:00Airports AnywhereInside Airports
As we headed for airport security at LAX a year ago, I noticed this large mural:many airports have added interesting art to their decor to distinguish them a tiny bit.
The book I read last month — Filterworld by Kyle Chayka — mentioned how airports seem to all look alike so you can almost forget where you are. Of course everyone knows this and it’s been true for decades. I Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-88787923152540038862024-03-09T01:00:00.002-05:002024-03-16T07:54:18.423-04:00Watching TV and Reading Two New Books with a Sense of PlaceWhat I watched this weekBiden made Speaker Johnson squirm!Photos from the New York TimesReadingI’ve been reading two very recently published books by two authors I like: Tommy Orange and Tana French. While the two books are very different in most respects, I have been struck by how each of them is permeated by a sense of place and by a community in this place. The Native American community in Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-72111933042415106062024-03-06T01:54:00.000-05:002024-03-06T16:50:50.927-05:00A Little, Fleeting Spring Wordless Wednesday Photos© 2024 mae sanderMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-52860566986769903022024-03-04T16:00:00.159-05:002024-03-04T16:00:00.301-05:00Trying Korean BeerCelebrating our Anniversary.Sometimes I feel adventurous. At Miss Kim, a restaurant that we always enjoy, most of our food selections were already favorites. However, I picked a completely unknown beverage: Makku, a Korean rice beer, brewed near Seoul. The primary ingredient is fermented rice, and its alcohol content is around 6%.Miss Kim, a Korean restaurant with innovative versions of the Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-36008348147912310072024-03-03T09:00:00.080-05:002024-03-03T09:00:00.323-05:00Painted PillarsArt Everywhere!In looking through my recent photos of street art and other art in public places, I’ve noticed quite a few examples of artists decorating structural pillars, both large and small. Big concrete pillars holding up highway bridges and rail crossings are often painted, as are small decorative pillars or structural pillars holding up a building. One fascinating thing about a cylindricalMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-79498629324098206422024-03-01T01:00:00.086-05:002024-03-07T02:42:09.107-05:00Reading and Watching This WeekI reread There, There by Tommy Orange, which I originally reviewed in 2018 (link)I am now reading the newly-published sequel. My recent visit to the Museum of the American Indianincluded an exhibit about broken treaties between the US and the Native Americans. Totally relevant here!A Beautiful Bird BookThanks to Deb at Readerbuzz, who reviewed this last week, I bought a copy —there was Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-80435057651991111102024-02-29T08:00:00.290-05:002024-02-29T08:00:00.151-05:00February in the KitchenIn the dolls’ kitchen: a new Whole Foods shopping bag.What’s new in my kitchen this month? I’ll start with a few items that we brought back from our 10-day trip to Virginia, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. While visiting our relatives, we also cooked for our hosts, and enjoyed foods that they cooked for us. I’ve already posted about most of the trip and the kitchens where we visited. I’m sharingMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-466858964205406692024-02-27T08:25:00.004-05:002024-02-27T08:25:53.769-05:00Voting Day in MichiganEarly voting started last week, and I have voted. Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-56970189459308196392024-02-26T12:00:00.000-05:002024-02-26T12:00:00.159-05:00Pasta Puttanesca and a Book About Pasta“Is it possible to sit down to a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and reflect on the meaning of roots, identities, and origins? That is what I have tried to do in these pages” (A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce, p. 9)Reading Massimo Montanari’s book A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce (first published in Italian in 2019, translation in 2021) I was delighted with his Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-50680164062564297142024-02-25T17:02:00.005-05:002024-02-25T17:02:53.265-05:00Early Spring: Red-Winged Blackbirds in the Park At Kensington Park we saw quite a few Red-Winged Blackbirds today.Easiest to photograph: those that were eating seeds provided by people who feed the birds.From the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: a map of Red-Winged Blackbird habitation,We are on the edge of the territory where they breed but do not spend the winter.In other years, I’ve seen my first blackbird of the year in March, so Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-67491267239622354732024-02-25T09:00:00.006-05:002024-02-25T09:00:00.393-05:00Art EverywhereMy favorite mural! We caught sight of it while driving on a city street in Lancaster, PA.More Lancaster MuralsOne from AlexandriaMural we saw from the car on the way out of Alexandria (from previous blog post).“For there is always light,if only we’re brave enough to see it.If only we’re brave enough to be it.” — Amanda GormanAnd one from the highway Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-9009975162163391332024-02-24T07:08:00.001-05:002024-02-24T07:08:05.726-05:00February Videos, Murder Mysteries, and Other ReadingFebruary has been so busy that I didn’t have time to write very many reviews. For today’s Sunday Salon (at Readerbuzz), I decided to say a few words about the books I’ve read this month, and the one streaming video series I watched. What is the Sunday Salon? It’s a place to link up and share what a group of bloggers have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-63335692705141718332024-02-23T09:19:00.000-05:002024-02-23T09:19:09.508-05:00Visiting PennsylvaniaEarlier this week, we visited Arny and Tracy in Lancaster, PA, and toured the surrounding area.It’s a beautiful place with many picturesque farm scenes to see as one travels the small local roads.Birding at Middle CreekI’ve already written about the snow geese at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management area.After seeing the geese, as the sun was about to set, we also saw tundra swans on the Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-33495456507925685542024-02-22T16:16:00.000-05:002024-02-22T16:16:13.280-05:00Important Thoughts in Ann Arbor Today“The Rock” is where a wide variety of opinions and images have traditionally been displayed. I did not intend to write another blog post today, but this is too urgent to postpone. I think everyone must be frightened at the impending triumph of evil in the world right now. Blog post © 2024 mae sander.Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-61077422793854144242024-02-22T12:01:00.000-05:002024-02-22T12:01:03.361-05:00Visiting Northern VirginiaLast week, we visited our daughter and son-in-law in Fairfax, Virginia, and then continued to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I’ve written several posts about some of the highlights of the trip, but I wanted to add some photos from both places. Today: our visit to Virginia.Sunday, February 11, we traveled the Ohio and PA turnpikes and continuedsouth to Fairfax.We arrived just in time for the classic Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-30101629513414065892024-02-20T18:21:00.004-05:002024-02-20T18:21:47.580-05:00The Eagle Photo © 2024 mae e. sanderMae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-58776788563355227022024-02-20T06:48:00.000-05:002024-02-20T06:48:39.434-05:00Snow Geese The white streak in the water is a raft of several thousand snow geese.Along with a crowd of other birders, we went to see the famous snow geese at Middle Creek Wildlife Management near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Huge flocks of these migrating geese land on the water and stay a while, and then rise in huge numbers and fly off to somewhere else. It’s an impressive sight.With binoculars or a Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-79161207663381303052024-02-18T14:20:00.000-05:002024-02-22T17:07:28.497-05:00Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DCHeading into Washington, DCBlossom to Beverage: The Story of ChocolateThis weekend the museum had a special event with lectures and demos about the history and uses of cacao, including interactive mural painting. The aroma of chocolate was everywhere! The artist creating the murals is Joaquin Alejandro Newman, a Yaqui Indian from Mexico.Kids could help paint the mural, which is deigned Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37695777.post-48149693446410310652024-02-16T07:01:00.000-05:002024-02-22T17:07:28.496-05:00Wandering around in the land of OzThe Oz books are a favorite of ours: this copy of L.Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz has been in Len’s family for nearly 90 years, and now belongs to our daughter Evelyn.When she was in fourth or fifth grade, Evelyn dressed as Ozma for Halloween.If you are a fan of the Oz books, you know that Ozma was the ruler of this fairy-tale country.Dorothy, Ozma, and Other Oz CharactersOzma of Oz with the Mae Travelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13328946930935633113noreply@blogger.com23