I'm Back

Another big recap with lots of photos!

On Saturday we traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Admission is free, but I won two tickets to the Special Exhibit at the Genealogy Conference. These tickets are $30 each. We determined that we are not very cultured and enjoyed the exhibit for free, but would not have wanted to pay for admission. 

Photo Opp

Mr Merry very confused as to why he was there. 

All the exhibits were large and colorful.

The works were very detailed.

Most of the art works were acrylic paint on canvas.

The exhibit was very popular with long lines.  Each group was assigned an entry time and entered as a group every thirty minutes. 

We also spent some time visiting old favorites (Monet)

King Louis XIII of France (Frans Pourbus)

This is a new acquisition - a fragment of a painting by Van Gogh. He destroyed his original work but this corner was preserved. 

One of the Mummies in the collection. 

We purchase lunch in the cafe and eat in the atrium. This way Mr. Merry can get a cheeseburger. 

And Miss Merry can order from the themed menu. This is the Soy Yakitori Chicken Bowl and the chef offered a version that was half chicken and half eggplant.  It was fabulous! 

Then we went home and lounged on Sunday. And decided to have ice cream for dinner. 

Monday I gathered my boxes for Goodwill, several bags of books for the little libraries and some clothes for the clothing bank. Two grandsons were here while their dad assisted in the ongoing truck repair and I almost forgot my church meeting.  

This week it seemed like we had several clients who have suffered injuries and have no paid sick leave. When you live penny to penny, a bone spur that breaks off and cuts your achilles or a cyst removal that turns septic can mean eviction. 

The Glass Class Girls turned Trader Joe's Girls finally made another one hour trip east to the nearest location. Here I am starting with salad because I have forgotten that I have a huge garden of lettuce waiting at home. . . 

Somehow shelf stable heavy cream is seasonal. I always check for it. Not yet!! (I hear it shows up in October). 

There is no rhyme or reason to my TJ shopping and obviously no list. 

And it all fit in my basket and cooler.  The driver's bags are on the left and my other friend's bags are on the right. 

Just a fun story. A large woman with red hair asked my friend if she could return her cart. Friend said yes and the woman cornered her and started praying and chanting for my friend's illnesses and told her she was melting something in her left leg.  So the moral is - return your own cart. 

Since my new hobby is grocery shopping, we all got back in the car on Wednesday and headed south this time. We had to make a detour because we forgot they were tearing down a building that had become to crumble a few months ago. 

The car took me to a new source for eggs! I have no excuse for not taking a photo and I will rectify this next trip.  It is a farm in the middle of nowhere with a cute little red shed by the barns.  Inside were trays of brown eggs and a sign saying they were ungraded and don't just pick the large ones.  You can bring your own egg cartons or they have donated ones, too. 

The farm woman and her Amish neighbors all raise chickens and a little Amish girl washes all the eggs.  They also sell homemade honey,  houseplants, homegrown produce, etc.  Eggs are $3 a dozen.  

Then we went to our favorite Mennonite Market - the one I went to last week.  We were the only English shoppers. There were lots of moms with adorable little girls in long dresses. But I respect their values and do not take photos. 

They cut the cheese ends into cubes and slices for crackers and bag on the left with a red clip is "meat ends" the end hunks from slicing. It is a variety pack, lol. 

They also sell locally produced beef. I took this photo for Mr Merry. As you who shop in grocery stores probably know - this sirloin steak (1 steak) was $15.00.  My price per pound after all processing on my beef quarter is about $4.00 a pound (which does include hamburger and other icky things that my neighbor takes off my hands). 

In case you were thinking of bulk purchases. 

Then we went to the Mennonite butcher shop. And you know how good they are because we were the only English shoppers. Everyone else was Old Order Amish - the ladies totally in black with bonnets with wide brims. 

We stopped because my friends wanted bratwurst burgers. They were out of the bratwurst burgers but Miss Merry, who has multiple packages of hamburger patties in her freezer, bought four kinds of seasoned burgers to try out on the grill.

Then, I'm not making this up, we came back to town and went west to another butcher shop in search of the brat patties. Which they found. Meanwhile Miss Merry bought something called meatloaf patties and we will have those for dinner on Thursday. 

My gardener found three tomatoes that the deer left for me! 

Here he is showing you how big my squash plants are! 

I broke down and ordered a salad spinner. It will be here on Friday. 

And tonight was the second City Summer Free Concert.  It was a concert band which was not Mr. Merry's favorite. The cheese and crackers purchased earlier helped pacify him.