Category Archives: WV

Making truffles

February 20, 2015Awesome, Food, Fun, WVCooking, Food, Making dessert, OMG!, They ain't all pretty but they taste awesome!warren

In town, there is a business called “Uncork and Create“. I’ll make up some of the history but mostly, it started as a place where an artist walks a group of people through doing a painting…everyone does the same painting with their own unique touches. Wine and snacks are welcome and it’s a fairly social gathering. They have since branched out from painting into all sorts of cooking/food classes.

Emily got me a gift certificate to go to one of their classes for Christmas. I am no cook, but I do like wine and sweets, so when I saw that they were offering a class on making chocolate truffles, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to give the place a try!

My class was offered on Valentine’s Day so taking it was either a really good idea or a really bad idea. I figured that if I arrived home with a pile of homemade truffles for my Valentine, I would be off the hook.

They have a local chef prepare a few easy recipes and we dug in with ingredients and kitcheny tools and stuff needed to make our recipes. The chef was a fun woman who was easy going and clearly enjoyed what she was doing. She teased and played and taught us some tricks for proper chocolate coating. There were a number of ingredients she brought so we could customize our truffles also. Several couples attended so I was at the “singles table”. We all agreed to customize our truffles with Grand Marnier orange liqueur. We tasted it and decided it wasn’t flavorful enough so we added more…and more. Well, you get the idea.

Once the truffle ganache is mixed, we had to refrigerate it so it would set up…chef came to our table after a bit and asked us how much hooch we had added to our mix…it turns out our mix was slow to set up…ooops! It wasn’t that much was it?

Finished truffles — The finished product

We finally got everything pulled together and made some really delicious truffles. I guess they aren’t as beautiful as I had hoped but for my first go at it, I was pleased. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed my time at the event. I won’t be able to make these things too often though or I’ll either be three sheets to the wind or overweight!

Our new driver

February 13, 2015Awesome, Family, Fun, Thoughts, WVAm I old enough to have a kid who can drive?, Driving!, Watch out worldwarren

We are pleased to introduce the newest driver in our house! Isaac passed his learner’s permit test yesterday. As soon as I got home from work, he bounced into the kitchen, license in hand. Of course, I knew he wanted to go drive. I suspect he had planned on my tossing him the keys and saying “let’s go.”

Although he has driven many times out at the executive deer stand, he had not driven at any real speed with opposing 2 ton hunks of rolling metal coming at him. Instead, I drove him to a nearby neighborhood with flat straight streets. He was a mix of excited and nervous…and so was I honestly.

He got into the driver’s seat and we went over the “make it go forward” checklist. Isaac tended to hug the white line as we drove house, cars, and mailboxes. Of course, he was still a little jerky with the gas pedal and the steering but he was very cautious and seemed to take it seriously enough to satisfy my nerves a little. I guess we drove for 40 minutes and had a lot of fun.

Probably my favorite part of the trip happened at the end of our drive. There is a church near our house where I asked Isaac to pull in so I could take us home. Our road is steep and windy and has a blind crest. We weren’t ready for that yet. Anyhow, we pulled into the parking lot and miscommunicated where we were going to park. Isaac got it between the parking lines so all was fine, but I suppose it looked funny to the older couple sitting in the car across the parking bumper from us. The look on their face was, at first, one of slight confusion with our antics. As soon as Isaac and I got out and switched seats, they got big goofy grins on their faces. It was obvious…we were practicing driving. In response to their big goofy grins, I grinned right back and nodded my head. I suspect they said a quick prayer for both me and them as, that night, a new driver was unleashed on the road!

Solo and Ensemble

February 10, 2015Audio, Family, Fun, WVBand, Band kids rock!, Proudwarren

It seems like things have been pretty slow around our place lately but we remain busy with stuff…some of the stuff I can identify, while other things are less clearly identified. Anyhow, last weekend, we had the pleasure of hearing Isaac and a small group of his fellow band members play at the Solo and Ensemble ratings at WV State University.

Ensemble Performance #1

Ensemble Performance #1 (lower quality)

This ratings event is not a head-to-head competition per se, but the bands compete for highest ratings. It is possible for multiple bands to have the highest ratings so no one gets trophies or certificates exactly although I suspect there is a good opportunity for bragging rights involved. Individual students can perform solos and small groups can perform as ensembles. Isaac’s school had a representation in both areas.

Ensemble Performance #2

Ensemble Performance #2 (lower quality)

We took videos of the two performances in which Isaac was involved. We didn’t have an opportunity to hear other performances as a lot of people shuffle in and out, but I am so proud of these shows and am certain that there was much greatness to be heard from the other groups from our school as well as other schools in the region. I don’t know how many groups played exactly, but I would guess around 50! That’s a beautiful thing, I think, for the arts to be so well represented! Yeah band!

A Christmas to Remember

December 30, 2014Adventure, Family, House, WVAdventure, Better than living in a cave, Christmas, Family, House, Stress-testing a new house...not a safe thingwarren

Christmas is such a nice time of year. Like most people who celebrate Christmas, we enjoy the time with family, the great food, and the fun we share exchanging gifts, baking cookies and listening to holiday music. It’s always a special time and a real joy for me.

This year (actually just a few weeks ago), my parents have bought a house nearby and came to their new place (into which they have not yet really moved). My elderly aunt and uncle and my brother and sister-in-law came and stayed with my parents in their new house. My gang hung around the new place too and it was setting up to be a really fun time. My brother and I planned to do a few projects to “tighten up” the new place and then just goof around for fun.

The house had been empty for a good period of time so there are always kinks that need to be worked out. The kitchen and bathrooms were remodeled and had never been used so we figured there might be a few little things as is common with new construction. Little did we know…

As people started using the plumbing, we discovered that the shower drain leaked, the installers had cracked the tub spigot, the door was not sealed in and the water control valve was not installed correctly. My brother and I set about remedying all of those issues by basically yanking out all of the things and re-installing the tub/shower correctly. Meanwhile, we found that the wax ring on one of the toilets was leaking. It turns out that the plumbers had not tightened the hold-down bolts at all…it’s a wonder the toilet didn’t just topple over when used.

Meanwhile, my Mom was cooking in the kitchen and ran some peels down the disposal. I think there was a drainage problem beforehand with a clogged pipe, but the peels made it very apparent and stopped up the kitchen drain completely. We had a snake and ran a good bit into the drain to clear it but it was a job for a plumber…after-hours on a weekend. The guy came out and was great and ran 50 feet of snake into the drain and made it better but definitely not clear. He’s coming back to finish later this week when regular rates apply. Hopefully that will be a simple fix!

My aunt became very ill during the shower fix and we were concerned that she was in very bad shape during all of this…it came to the point where we called an ambulance to take her to the ER. Since my brother and I had the shower apart, Emily volunteered to go along to the hospital with my aunt and uncle. About 5 hours later, we found she had both kidney and gall stones and all was basically ok (the wonders of medicine!)

Around 8 or 9 that evening, when everything seemed to be winding down and it seemed like nothing else could go wrong…you guessed it…more went wrong! The hot water heater started leaking water pretty badly…it turns out there was a faulty pressure relief valve that didn’t really need any pressure before it decided to relieve itself. No hardware stores were open when we figured out what was going on so I got a new one the next morning. We were back in business in 20 minutes or so and everyone could get hot showers!

As bad as all of this sounds, for some reason, it just wasn’t a stressful weekend for me. LOTS of stuff went wrong, but it all had fairly clear solutions. I knew everything was going to be ok and that I’d have a good story to tell. I doubt it is necessary to document this entire weekend here as I doubt I’ll ever forget it, but just in case, this was definitely a Christmas unlike any other!

Abigail’s trio

December 23, 2014Audio, Family, Fun, WVBand, Band kids are awesome!, Christmas, I still hate the mallwarren

Abigail started taking flute lessons in 3rd grade. It’s had its ups and downs but mostly she enjoys playing and she has done very well playing in various school events in elementary school. Now she is in middle school where she is in the school band, a five-days-per-week endeavor. Of course, with a lot more playing time, she has really seen a jump in her ability. Practice makes perfect of course!The other day, her band had the opportunity to play various duets, trios, etc at the local mall. It was packed with shoppers and felt all festivey, especially with the beautiful music the kids played. I am always amazed at the ability of these kids and their band instructor to make kids, many of whom had never touched an instrument, into pretty amazing musicians in a year-and-a half or two years! It’s really wonderful and makes me so proud!

Performance 1

Performance 2

Anyhow, Abigail was (I think) the only 6th grader to play in the group. She had a duet and a trio. I recorded both but the acoustics in the mall along with my position make it harder to hear in the video than it was in real life. Anyhow, I loved hearing the groups play Christmas songs and carols and have a good time!

At the end, they decided to walk to the next stage area over and have a group shot with Santa. He was a pretty good sport!

Majorette and Band Festival – 2014

September 24, 2014Audio, Family, Fun, WVBand, I love band kids!, Kidswarren

Tuesday night was the Majorette and Band Festival where all of the high schools in Kanawha county come to show off their field shows. We joined several hundred other folks in watching 8 great bands play their very best in the University of Charleston stadium.

This is our first year to have a band member on the field and we were super excited for all of the build-up and preparation for this show. The season started with band camp in August where the entire band went away to set up their marching field show and practice their music. It’s amazing how fast (a week!), the band came together to produce a really nice show. Since that time, they practice daily and have refined their show incredibly!

Video007 — Click to play the small version

Here’s a better version if your machine will play it

We are very fortunate to have a really great band director who expects a lot from the kids, and leads them demand a lot from themselves. Their pride and hard work that the director instilled in them really showed as they took the field Tuesday. The band exhibited fantastic precision in marching and delivered as crisp a performance as I’ve ever heard/seen. They were in synch and smooth and just looked first-class. I couldn’t be more proud of how these kids performed!

Youtube video with bits from all of the bands

As a special treat, Marshall University’s Marching Thunder performed the finale at the festival and showed the bands at the festival what the next level of play might be for them. They were great and dynamic and made a lot of sound (in a great way) as you would expect from a good sized university band!

Marshall Marching Thunder – Click to play small version

Here’s a better version if your machine will play it

Among other songs, they played Big Noise from Winnetka, one of the songs that Isaac’s jazz band played last year…both were great renditions…it was a lot of fun to hear the different takes on the same song. While we were disappointed that our band wasn’t awarded the grand champion trophy, I am so proud of Isaac and his friends and look forward to many more competitions!

The Greenbrier and the bunker tour

July 3, 2014Awesome, WVGreenbrier is an amazing place!, Lifestyles of the not so rich and famous, Who the heck lives like this?, WVwarren

Where did the last 10 days go? It seems like we just got back from the trip we took to Lewisburg, but it’s been a while now! So, it turns out, the Greenbrier resort is in White Sulphur Springs, WV, a few miles from Lewisburg. The Greenbrier is one of those pretty high-end resorts that reminds me of where Daddy tried to put Baby in the Corner. It’s not a place I really understand, but they have really pretty grass, so why not?

Emily and I decided to go and walk around the place and enjoy the beautiful views and take a tour of the declassified bunker that was built into the mountain during the Cold War. The bunker was called Project Greek Island and was built to allow government to continue to exist in the event of nuclear war.

The ugly wall paper false wall hiding the blast door of the Greenbrier bunker

The bunker itself is not all that notable, but the tour given by staff is well worth the cost of the tickets. There was so much secrecy and Cold War intrigue in its construction that simply seeing the structure without the story would be to miss the real gem.

We had a lot of fun walking around the grounds as the staff prepared for the Greenbrier Classic. We spend a few moments indulging our fantasies of wealth and importance and the state of the world during the Cold War. I think the Greenbrier is exactly built for that…a place to get away from reality and ponder things. The cool part for us, at least, is that we didn’t have to pay to stay in the hotel or eat at the restaurants. We were able to escape for a few bucks for the cost of the bunker tour. And even better was leaving with my savings in my pocket, my wife at my side and a reservation back in Lewisburg!

Lewisburg and stuff

June 23, 2014Adventure, WVAdventure, Fun, Lewisburg - it IS a pretty cool small townwarren

A few weekends ago, Emily and I were without kids so decided to take a trip to Lewisburg, WV. Lewisburg was voted “America’s Coolest Town” in 2011 so we figured we should check it out. There is a lot of beauty across WV, but some of the best of it is collected in Greenbrier county and the counties that surround it. We had a perfect weekend for walking about town and that was exactly our plan.

There are numerous small shops in Lewisburg that very clearly cater to tourists, but are still very cool regardless. In particular, we found a place that was sort of a health-food, earthy, new-age-almost place, called Edith’s Health and Specialty Store. Normally I don’t care much about that sort of place, but we planned to check out every store in town. What I especially liked about Edith’s was the bulk food area in the basement. They had a barrel of the finest dates I have ever eaten. I know, dates aren’t a thing most people care about, let along spend time writing into a sentence, but these dates were so fresh and wonderful, I can’t wait to go back and get more! Dates…who knew?!

Emily at lunch - Stella's — Emily at lunch – Stella’s

There were trinket stores and an outfitter and bakeries and antique stores and even a pecan store. We hit all of the shops and had a really cool time talking about, you know, adult stuff. The kids would have been crazy, but we had a great time eating dates and talking about…whatever we wanted! Lewisburg is sort of what small towns used to be I suppose. From the time before there were big box stores, when people went to the local whatever shop for…whatever. The downtown was alive with people…likely tourists, but still, people wandering around, chatting and enjoying the weather. It reminds me somewhat of my hometown before it hit against hard times.

Near Lewisburg, there are a number of other sights…we took a tour of Lost World Caverns. It was a cave homecoming for Emily as she had gone on a guided tour of the cave when she visited on an elementary school trip when she was a kid. Since we were adults, we got to do a self-guided tour which was cool. It’s nice spending extra time staring at any old dang rock we pleased as opposed to speeding through a tour guided by someone else.

I was especially surprised, as Emily is not a wine drinker, that we visited a winery/vineyard and did a wine tasting. Watts Roost Winery ferments wine onsite, but unfortunately, is closing as soon as they run out of their stock. I guess the owner prefers sheep farming to wine making so is expanding one business and closing the other. Too bad, as the wine was pretty good…we bought 10 bottles of various sorts.

Back to Lewisburg, we walked around and saw Carnegie Hall, one of four Carnegie Halls in the world. We didn’t go in, but we did walk the grounds a bit and get to say we licked Carnegie Hall…who else can say that?!

Old Stone Presbyterian ChurchOld Stone Presbyterian Church — Old Stone Presbyterian Church

Across the road from Carnegie Hall is “The Old Stone Presbyterian Church“, an old…stone…church. What did you expect? Anyhow, it has an old cemetery attached as well. It was striking that there were a number of tombstones there that had birthdates before the US of A was the US of A. It’s hard to even think about that for me for some reason…to wonder what the area was like before the area was a state, let along a country. It must have been thrilling and terrifying and amazing and terrifying (again).

All-in-all, it was a great trip to see a cool small town. It was fun to hang with Emily and see some neat things and to sip a little wine, eat some rich food and act like adults!

Two swarms so far

May 16, 2014Bees, Nature, WVBeekeeping, Bees are cool!, Honeybees, The bee-man cometh!warren

It’s swarm season and swarm season is my favorite time/part of beekeeping! Swarming is a natural part of a bee colony but one that is pretty unsettling to folks who see it happening. In the last 10 days or so, I have gotten two good calls about swarms of bees in Charleston.

The first call was from a postal carrier who was walking in a neighborhood delivering mail. He came upon a swarm hanging low in a bush. The homeowner initially wanted to call an exterminator, but the postal worker pulled out his phone and found my contact info. I was delighted to come and take care of the “problem”. Most people are terrified and also fascinated/curious about swarms so I try to describe what happened, what I am going to do and why it is so important to save bees rather than kill them.

So this swarm was easy. I placed my sheet on the ground and my nucleus hive box on top. With a quick shake and a giggle, most of the bees dropped into the box and my work was done. It’s unusual, but I actually saw the queen on the top of the pile of bees. I watched as she marched into the box whereupon I put the lid in place and waited for the rest of the colony to catch up with her!

A few days later, Charleston’s 911 dispatch called me about a large swarm in the middle of the city in a fairly public area. When I arrived, the fire department was in place keeping people away. They had taped off a large area and were waiting nearby patiently. I whipped in and saw a very large swarm stuck to a solid concrete retaining wall. Luckily, I brought along my handy-dandy-bee-swarm-retrieving dustpan. I am pretty tough but I cannot shake bees off of a concrete wall so I just used the dustpan to gently scoop the bees into my hive box. Easy-peasy!

I am pretty vain so I figure that is most of the reason why I love catching swarms so much. I always get an audience and lots of oohhhs and aahhhs. It’s usually relatively safe and pretty simple to catch a swarm, but I look brave and tough. It’s a vain man’s dream! And on top of that, I get free bees which will (hopefully) make me lots of wonderful sweet honey. Heck, the world needs more bees as well as more sweet honey so it’s a win all the way around!

More bee stuff

All-county band!

April 28, 2014Audio, Awesome, Family, WVBand kids rock!, If it's too loud...you're too old!warren

I love band kids! They are just some of the coolest, non-jerky kids I have ever met. I am especially proud of my band kid and the fact that he recently killed it in the all-county band as well as the all-county jazz band performances. You see, Isaac plays tenor sax and he plays it pretty well. Well enough to earn first chair in both bands!

These kids get together once a week for 2 hours at a time over the course of 6 or 8 weeks to practice. They work very hard and it comes together in a fantastic performance that we enjoyed a few weeks back! Isaac had a number of solos and he did a great job!

Tune #1
Tune #2
Tune #3
Tune #4
Tune #5
Tune #6
Tune #7
Tune #8
Tune #9

He didn’t show too many signs of nervousness (at least until we were getting ready to drive to the performance…maybe a little tension then) and he pressed right through and played so well. I am very proud of course. Take a listen and see what you think. As always, this was recorded on my phone which was somewhat swamped at times by their sound and by random knuckleheads talking, the occasional cough or two and my stomach growling. I still like their sound and hope you enjoy!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!