2012 Christmas Letter

December 12, 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

It is our hope that 2012 has been a good year for you and your family.  With Thanksgiving behind us, it is time to start preparing and decorating for Christmas.  Usually we have all been together to get the tree, but due to travel and school schedules this year, only LeAnn, Mariah and Hailey were available to go out for our annual Christmas tree hunt.  We only have three full time members of the household now with Mariah and Kara away at college.

Mariah (21) is a senior at the University of Denver.  She has decided to stay for a fifth year to obtain a Masters in Accounting.  This summer she traveled to Dallas, TX, Chicago, IL, and Hollywood, CA for leadership conferences put on by the Big 4 accounting firms as part of the recruiting process for an internship next summer and potentially full time employment.  She decided to take an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Denver next summer.  She stayed in Denver this summer and worked as a member of the new student orientation team to welcome new students to DU. She explored the city and even climbed her first two 14er’s (14,000 ft. mountains).  She has started a wine blog to explore a passion developed in Argentina.  She has also been keeping up with her Spanish by volunteering at Museo de las Americas, a Latino arts and culture museum in Denver.  She also made her first trip to the annual Las Vegas get together with her cousins this summer.

Kara (18) graduated from Eagan High School last spring.  She was a member of the Eagan High School golf team which came in second in both the conference and in regions, thanks in part to a nice 25’ putt she made on the final hole of district playoffs.  We had a fun open house for her in June to celebrate her accomplishment, and got to visit with a lot of friends and relatives.  We took her down to Drake University in Des Moines, IA this fall where she started her freshman year.  She went through sorority recruitment and joined Kappa Kappa Gamma.  She stays busy with various social events (such as western themed and formal dances), philanthropic events, classes and homework.  She plans to major in advertising and marketing.  Kara worked as a playground assistant for the city of Bloomington over the summer.

Hailey (16) is a junior at Eagan High School.  Last spring she became a licensed driver, making it easier to get to and from school, friends’ houses and other events.  Last spring she was member of the track team and specialized in the long jump. She is always on the run with her friends, and we enjoy having a house full of girls working on homework, or, better yet, whipping up yummy treats that we can all enjoy.  We did college visits to the University of Minnesota Duluth, Carleton College, and St. Olaf this fall.  So far she is not sure where she wants to go, or what she wants to do after high school.

Ray continues to get some golf in when he can, trying to stay even with Kara.  He made a lot of pens, bottle stoppers and ornaments on his wood lathe during the MN indoor season (aka winter).  He still does relatively simple items and is in awe of the fine detail and thin walls that expert turners are capable of doing.  He is also closing in on finding his 1000^th geocache, and has found geocaches in 28 US states and 12 countries so far.  Ray is still working at Advantek and has spent a lot of time traveling the second half of the year as part of a new equipment installation project.

LeAnn has been doing a lot of home decorating projects based on ideas she sees on Pinterest - an internet website that is full of fun project ideas.  She regularly goes to yoga classes and keeps active with long distance walking, bike riding and golf.  She has also started a new job with Right at Home, providing in-home cleaning, support and companionship to elderly and disabled clients.  She has really enjoyed meeting and helping support many fascinating people through this new job.  She continues to work as a preschool teacher for the City of Eagan.

In March, we took a spring break trip to Gulf Shores, AL.  Mariah was not able join us since her spring break schedule did not match up with the other girls, but Kara and Hailey both brought along a friend for the trip, making for a van full on the way down and back.  Driving down gave us opportunities to stop along the way.  We stopped at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Graceland (Elvis Presley’s mansion) in Memphis on the way down. 

The white sand beaches of the Gulf Shores area are beautiful.  We spent a lot of time enjoying the beach and surf, toured around the area, visited an alligator farm, went on a dolphin watching cruise in the bay, and went over to Pensacola to the Navy base to watch the Blue Angels aerobatic fighter demonstration.  It is incredible how fast they fly and how close together they come during the show.  On the way back to Minnesota, we stopped at Opryland in Nashville, Churchill Downs, and the Louisville Slugger baseball bat museum and factory in Louisville.

Ray and LeAnn took a couple of fun local trips during the year, including a kayaking trip down the Cannon River south of the Twin Cities. The river was crowded with a lot of tubers, but we went further upstream and were on a quieter part of the river.  In the early fall, we went down along the Mississippi River and toured three different wineries.  At the last winery, we ate lunch on a large deck overlooking the vineyard.  Although the wineries in Minnesota are relatively few and far between, it made for an enjoyable getaway, and is interesting to learn about how the wineries deal with the local weather compared to the wineries in true wine country.

Both Ray and LeAnn’s moms are doing well. Karren still is living at her home in Burnsville, and stays busy with cards, church, and her many friendships.  Lois is still spending the winters down in Apache Junction, AZ, where she continues to golf, play cards and participate in many activities within her mobile park.   

We had all the girls home for Thanksgiving, and had both sides of the family over for dinner. We got our first big snowfall this weekend – around 10 inches.  Hopefully now we will have a white Christmas this year.  We look forward to having everyone home again and celebrating the season together.

                                                                                      Have a great year,

                                                       LeAnn, Ray

                                Mariah, Kara, and Hailey

Email:  bloom2511@hotmail.com  

Blog: www.bloom2511.blogspot.com

Mariah’s blogs: http://onesmallgrainofsand.wordpress.com/, http://vivaciousvines.wordpress.com/

2012-12 Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Ray had an extended stay in Shanghai and visited the town of Zhujiajiao on the western outskirts of Shanghai.  He traveled by bus with Andy from the Shanghai plant and John from an equipment supplier.  The bus left from near downtown and it took about an hour to get to Zhujiajiao.  It was raining when we arrived at the bus station in Zhujiajiao, so Andy thought it would be best if we took a tricycle taxi to the riverside.  It was tight fit, but we stayed dry for the 1/2 mile ride.

Zhujiajiao is built along a series of rivers and canals, so our first order of business was a boat ride through the canals.  The boats are guided by a gondolier who steers and propels the boat with a single long oar from the back of the boat.    John and Ray were given a chance to steer the boat, but keeping the oar on the peg and making it move forward were not as easy and the gondolier made it appear.

We toured Kezhi Garden, which was a residence with a large food garden, a pond, rock sculptures, and a large home.  Inside the rooms were various artists practicing their crafts.  One of the more facinating was paper cutting master who made large and small paper cutouts of various things such as the animals of the Chinese calendar, warier scenes, and flowers

We then went back to the tallest and longest bridge across the canal, built over 300 years ago.  This is called the Bridge for Freeing Captive Fish.  Our gondolier did have turtles for sale on his boat that could be bought and released, but no fish.  Andy bought a turtle, but was bringing it home for his son.  While walking over the bridge, I noticed a family down at the base of the bridge and they were throwing the turtles back into the river.  The turtles were in for a rough landing as they were probably flying about 50' in the air, so this was not a gentle release.

We walked along the river and checked out some of the shops and food stalls along the way.  They sell souvenirs like silk blankets, wood carvings, and various foods.  We stopped at a dumpling shop that used sticky rice, chestnuts and pork wrapped in a leaf, tied with a piece of straw (using her hands and teeth) and then steamed.  When done, it was gooey and very tasty.  

After crossing the bridge, we found a place for lunch.  All the seafood was very fresh, as it was kept alive in fish tanks next to the kitchen.  They had small and large fish, shrimp, eels, and snails.  We had fish and shrimp, and eating the shrimp was a challenge  as they were small shrimp and not peeled.  Andy was able to place them in his mouth whole and remove the meat and then discard the head and shell with very little problem.  John and Ray had to end up peeling them by hand before eating them.  Because of this, Andy ordered peeled shrimp for our evening dinner, making it much easier for John and Ray.  During lunch we overhear an American at an adjacent table talking about St. Paul and the Twin Cities.  A small world when a person eating lunch in a small, family run restaurant along the river outside of Shanghai is from the same state as you.

One of the shops along the way had some skinned ducks hanging on a large rack and buckets full of crabs of various sizes.  It is always interesting to see the food hanging out without refrigeration.  Across the street was a shop having cages and cages of live birds, but these were apparently for pets, not food

2012-12 Dinner at the Spicy Fish

While working in Shanghai, I went to a nearby restaurant called the Spicy Fish, even though we didn't know anything about it, it was crowded and busy, so figured it had to be OK.  I didn't have any locals with me, just another American.  As we were going to the table, I saw the hot plate built into the table.  We sat down and got our menu.  Fortunately there were a lot of pictures and English words, so ordering was pretty easy.  We ordered yellow catfish, noodles, vegetables and dumplings.  The cooking pan came out with tomato soup on one side and spicy broth on the other.

I started to put some vegetables in the pot and the waiter stopped me.  They would be doing the cooking.   A basket came out and when he opened it, it contained our fish--still live.  They were bringing them out for approval.  The fish were about 6" long.  They returned to the kitchen and gutted them, bringing them back out in a bowl, still wiggling a little bit.  The waiter motioned for us to hold our napkins up to our necks.  We weren't sure why he was asking, but we did it.  He then brought an oversized, clear, domed cover to fit over the cooking pot.  He proceeded to add the fish to the pot and they splashed around for about 10 seconds making a mess under the dome.  Once they settled won, he removed the dome, and had us put our napkins down.  He told us they would be done in 5-6 minutes.

After the fish was done, he placed them in out bowl and we ate them with our chopsticks, pulling as much meat off them as we could.  As we finished the fish, the noodles were then cooked.  After the noodles we had our vegetables.  The soup broth was very spicy, and made for a very good meal.  It was a good place to try and another interesting experience.

2012-09 Great River Road Wine Trail

Ray and LeAnn headed south on Sunday to visit some Minnesota and Wisconsin Wineries which are part of the Great River Road Wine Trail.  It is a group of 9 wineries up and down the Mississippi river in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa who market themselves together.  Sunday was beautiful day in Minnesota as the temperatures rose into the mid 70's and was sunny and calm--perfect for traipsing through the vineyards. 

Our first stop was the Maiden Rock Winery and Cidery in Stockholm, WI.  This winery not only makes wine, but also cider and hard cider.  During our wine tasting we tried 2 different hard ciders, a couple of wines made at the winery and also some wines from other Wisconsin wineries in Green Bay and Bayfield.  The Maiden Rock Winery grows their own grapes, crab apples and apples for use in their wine and cider.  They use the apples in various wines and their cider.  You can also buy apples that have been picked on site, or pick some of your own.  We bought a bottle of Skeeter Bite Forest to bring home. I wish they had been launching the apples from the catapult while we were there, but it was all locked up
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We then went north to Prescott, WI and visited the Valley Vineyard.  This was located at the end of a dead end residential street, so if it wasn't for the signs indicating where to turn, you wouldn't think you were headed to the winery.  All the grapes had already been harvested, but we walked through the vineyard anyway to take some photos.  The vineyard is small, with about 6 acres, but multiple grape varieties are grown and harvested.  They had over a dozen different wines made by them available for tasting.  We enjoyed the variety of wines and purchased a bottle of the Sweet Elegance.  Most of wines in this region are combinations of various cool weather grapes (some developed at the Univ of MN) and sometimes blended with fruit or honey. 

Our last stop was at the Falconer Winery in red Wing, MN.  They have recently built a Bistro overlooking the vineyard and the view is wonderful.  They have a wood fueled, brick oven that they make specialized pizza (including one with grapes, which was very good.  To get from the tasting room to the bistro, you walk right through the winery which is full of various barrels and vats filled with wine in various stages of fermentation.

We then headed home after a full day of sightseeing, wine tasting, and relaxation.  A very fun way to spend a Sunday on a Minnesota fall day

2012-09 Parents and Family weekend at Drake

 Ray, LeAnn, and Ray's mom, Karren went down to Drake University in Des Moines to visit Kara over the weekend.  It was Parents and Family weekend, and included many activities on campus to do with Kara.

We arrived at Drake on Friday evening and Kara and some of her friends had set up a dinner at the Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewery.  Approximately 30 students and associated family members attended the dinner to kick off the weekend.

Saturday morning, we got up and did a 2K fun walk around the campus and finishing on the Drake track (home of the famous Drake relays).  Many Olympic athletes have raced around this track as part of the Drake Relays.  We did not threaten any of their times as we strode around the track.

Prior to the Drake football game, we went to a tailgate party outside the stadium, and consumed typical tailgate fare of hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, brownies and cookies.  We then went into the stadium to watch the Drake Bulldogs take on the Morehead St (Kentucky) Eagles.  Both teams run a no-huddle offense with a lot of passing.  The pace of the game was very fast as there was no TV coverage to dictate clock stoppages.  The game was tied at 7-7 at half time, and unfortunately we had to leave for another event.  The second half was a much more wide open affair, as the final score ended up 28-25 in favor of Drake.

We left the game to go to the Sweetheart Sing in which the various sororities and fraternities put together short skits and songs in a friendly competition.  The theme this year was 90's music, so the kids got to sing and dance to a lot of the boy bands they had listened to at a young age.  Kara's sorority did a Spice Girls medley.  A total of 12 Greek Chapters presented their song and dance  numbers.  A lot of talented people were on stage for each chapter.  Kara was part of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and made her college stage debut.  Although her sorority did not win, they had a great time and we enjoyed the show.

Saturday night was destined for some shopping and refilling the fridge and snack drawer, and few other necessities (at least as defined by Kara)

Sunday morning, we went over the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house for a brunch, tour and opportunity to meet some of the sister's and their families.  The house is over 100 years old and was first owned by a brewery magnate, who later had to sell it to his wife during prohibition.  The sorority bought it from her, so has been under female ownership since the 1920's.  Up to 46 girls can live at the house in various combination of 1, 2, 3 and 4 person rooms.  The old carriage entrance is now a sun room, and some of the original doors and windows are still in use.  Copies of the original house blue prints are framed and hanging in one of the sitting rooms.  Kara is very excited about her membership in Kappa Kappa Gamma.

After brunch on Sunday, we did a little more shopping, getting Kara some business attire as they are required to wear business attire for various classes and school functions, allowing them to get used to wearing such clothing before they are required to for interviews or an actual job.

Our last stop was at Jethro's BBQ, a very popular restaurant and bar just a block off of campus.  It has been highlighted on various food shows in its relatively short history.  The food was good, and we got to see the end of the Vikings upset of San Fransisco on TV.

We said goodbye to Kara and then headed back home after a fun, eventful and very enjoyable weekend at her new "home" for the next few years.

2012-08 Bad Oeynhausen II

Ray had an extended stay in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany for some new equipment checkout. Although he didn't have a car, he did rent a bike the first weekend he was there, giving him a little further reach than he would have by foot. Bad Oeynhausen claimed its fame when salt springs were found in the area. One farmer's pigs did better than a lot of other pigs, and the farmer found they were drinking from some natural springs in the area. This was found to be healthy not only for the pigs, but also for humans, and a new industry was born. The pigs and farmer are immortalized by a statue downtown on their main promenade street. 

 

The first evening, he went downtown for dinner and discovered multiple restaurants to choose from, including Argentinian, Greek, Spanish,Chinese, American, and even some German. The first night was the Argentina restaurant, but the others helped fill in the remaining evening meals. The culture here is very much cash based as many of the local restaurants do not take credit cards, an some do not even have formal receipts. They just keep track of what you order on blank note pads and give you a final total when you are done. Some keep count of your beers by marking your coasters with every beer you order (so make sure you get a fresh coaster)

 

The park behind the hotel is known as Kurpark (or cure park) and is the home of the original bath houses (badhaus) utilizing the natural salty spring water for which the area is known. One of the earlier kaisers built a retreat there and there were also many public bath houses or spas built over time. Besides the spas, there are many medical clinics in the area and people come from all over Germany for treatments. There are many fountains in the Kurpark due to the natural springs in the area. During the park festival, there were many kids, and some adults cooling off in the fountains, which put on a 15 minute show every hour.

 

During the first weekend, there was a large festival in the park and it included artwork, food vendors, music and fireworks on Saturday night. One of the interesting activities they had for the kids on Sunday was very large air filled tube that was controlled by by an operator for both air flow and angle of the tube. The operator would let the tube come to the ground and all the kids would jump on it. He then increase the air and lifted it skyward and would and would literally dump all the kids off it. I'm sure a few came away some bruises. It is fun to listen to the kids on the video below as the large air tube attacks them or bounces them up and down.

 

 

 

There was a lot of art in the park this weekend.  One area of the park had a river created with bottle filled with glow sticks that wound its way under a small bridge.  I would have liked to have seen that all lit up.  Another had a tree with facial features along with a crow and hawk wired into the branches.  I watched a few people jump as they walked by and noticed the crow in the tree just above eye level.

 
There were also some very good food vendors, serving grilled bratwurst, french fries, gyros, ice cream and beer.  One had a large 6' charcoal grill in their stand and were grilling all sorts of meat, from pork, to steak and sausages.   I was fortunate to be able to place all my orders for food without too much trouble, between barely pronouncing food in German (Bier=Beer--not bad, but pommes frites=French Fries--need some inside info).  Another vendor had a booth for magnetic health jewelry, but I think they would have to reconsider the name if they did the same in the US.

I happened past a small jagermann (everyman) golf course that looked like it was mowed out of a pasture.  The greens were just short cut grass, not greens as we know them.  Tee boxes were driving range mats, and most of the holes looked to be 60 to 100 yards long.  I did see some people on the course, with full bags in tow on pull carts.  The most interesting area of the course was the driving range, which hit into an orchard.  About 60 yards from the tee mats was a stand of apple trees.  It must be interesting picking the balls up and not getting any fallen apples.  i'm sure a few apples get bruised along the way too.

 Another park I rode through was called Agua magic.  There were many relaxation area and different customized garden areas, along with a couple of play areas for the kids.  For the adults, there was a nice shady beer garden to enjoy a beverage from.


Bad Oeynhausen is situated in a valley.  There is a lot of farming done in the area.  After climbing out of the valley, the views of the farm fields, European architecture and the surrounding hills was enjoyable and worth the ride up the hills.  The bike i had rented was a seven speed with the gearing in the hub, like the old 3 speed bikes of many years ago.  It took a little while to get used to the shifting as you have to back pedal slightly to allow the gear to shift, rather than keeping pedaling like on a derailleur system.

In an area north of town called Sielpark, was a structure that was used for removing the salt from the spring water.  The salt works graduation tower was giant structure (about 10' wide by 35' tall and 225' long) filled with sticks and branches which had the spring water pours over the top.  The water cascaded down the branches and the salt would form deposits on the branches.  These branches were then removed to obtain the salt deposited during the process.

Many of the sidewalks, parking lots and even some roadways are made from individual pavers.  The advantage of these is when they have to repair an area, they can pull up the pavers, do the repair and then place them back down.  If some get damaged, they can be replaced individually.  I was very impressed with how well the parking lots and walkways held up.  They used different color pavers to indicate bike and pedestrian lanes


One evening I went to dinner at Trollinger Hof on the north side of town.  This is a small bed and breakfast type place.  At the salad bar was some small items that looked like mini watermelons, maybe an inch or two long.  They were actually more like mini cucumbers in taste though.  The restaurant owner also made her own after dinner liqueurs, made from flavor infused alcohol.  My favorite was here cinnamon liqueur.  It was cinnamon flavored tequila, but there was no hint of the tequila, and it was very smooth.  She also had some orange infused rum, along with rose, lavender and about 2 dozen other flavors.  She placed the finished product in various containers and displayed them in the eating area.

Walking through the park on the second weekend, I was surprised how many weeding groups were there taking photos.  I saw at least 6 bridal parties taking pictures in front of the various fountains and flower beds.






The city is very much a bike culture.  I tried to rent a bike for the second weekend, but they had already all been reserved for the weekend.  Even the postal service (Duetch Post) delivers their mail by bike
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Out in front of one of the medical buildings was in interesting stature that was half full body and half a cut away showing the internal organs and structure.