Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Friday, June 19, 2026

Catching Up With the Hodgepodge



A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!




Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1.  June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren't born yet but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here.
 
The summer of 1994 I was pregnant with our second son. I don't remember any specifics about what we were doing that summer, though we were probably taking it easy for the most part since it was a slightly higher risk pregnancy. I don't know that we paid any attention to the low speed car chase, but I remember it was on the news. 
 
2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?

I like chicken salad, and I make it with almonds and dried cranberries, and with no celery. I don't like the texture of celery. I also started making a caprese salad platter and that's so good! I include some kind of fresh fruit on the caprese salad, like berries or peach slices, so I like that, though in general I prefer my greens and my fresh fruit to not be tossed together! 

 

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be?

 I don't think it is, though in many ways it seems to be declining. I didn't look up a definition but to me chivalry is courtesy and good manners levelled up, and especially when it comes to gentlemen looking after the ladies around them. Good manners aren't uncommon but I would say that not all younger people are taught good manners in a way that makes it second nature to them.

4.  Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you really would like to see? How do you feel about 'Hawaiian pizza' aka pineapple on a pizza? Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska?

 I would rather spend a week in Alaska, since I've long wanted to go there. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting Hawaii but it's never been high on my priority list. I haven't been to either state yet, but yes, I really want to go to Alaska. The combination cruise and train trip through Alaska has been on my vacation wishlist for my entire adult life. I love Hawaiian pizza and have no problem with pineapple on any pizza. It's usually my pizza order when I can order a personal pizza, because nobody else in my family likes it. I don't think I've ever had Baked Alaska, but I'd like to try it. What's not to like?

5.  World Cup play is happening now . . . are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven US cities hosting matches -
-Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle
along with three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)-

You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why.

 Really not interested in World Cup or in soccer overall. Which isn't to say we haven't paid attention or watched matches. We spent a couple days with my sister-in-law and her husband and he is really into soccer so we watched games with him and he explained rules to us. I never played soccer myself and neither did my kids. My kids didn't like when they had the soccer units when they were in gym class. They actively disliked it, in fact. If I was offered free tickets to any of the matches, I think I'd choose Vancouver. I haven't been to Vancouver in decades and I think I'd enjoy going back and seeing a little of the city before and after the game. 


6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's been a bit of a computer odyssey for me the past couple weeks. We did not have "plug and play" internet at the new house like we'd hoped, so we finally got Spectrum out to hook it up last Tuesday. So I could use our wifi instead of setting up a hotspot with my phone. But it took until Thursday before we tried setting up our desktop computer . . . and gave up on it because there is something wrong with the connection of the actual power switch. We'd previously managed a workaround of taking out the battery and putting it back in but that didn't work. Okay, at least we had my chromebook and wifi, and given that we were about to go on vacation, we planned to take the computer to be repaired at some point after we got back. Limiting, but okay. Well, second day on vacation and my chromebook would not power on. It was fully charged, hadn't been dropped or had anything spilled on it etc, just wouldn't power on. Since we didn't have a working desktop to go home to, I definitely needed to replace it. Hadn't really planned on making that purchase but I did buy it in Canada so the exchange rate was in my favor!

Needless to say, it's put me behind on blogging and for sure on commenting! So my apologies for being even later than usual in visiting others, and I've missed a lot. Also missing out because I'm on vacation and then next week I'll have family visiting.  

What are you getting caught up on this week? Leave a comment and let me know!



From this Side of the Pond

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - The Art of Teaching. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.



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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Everyday Images #90



Welcome to my ongoing challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I'm not a photographer, but I enjoy taking everyday photos of things I find interesting or want to remember later, and I'm more likely to notice interesting things when I'm intentionally watching for them. Having some prompts that are open to interpretation has helped me pay a little more attention to what's around me. Here's how it works: Every two weeks I have a few words and phrases to focus on, and I try to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. The link-up post will be here every other Thursday, sharing my photos and offering a link-up for participants to share theirs. Right below the link-up is where you'll find the next set of prompts. 

June Prompts - Everyday Images #90
~~~~~

wildflowers
water
neighborhood spot (quarterly)
nature
adventure
favorite
twilight
~~~~~

wildflowers - sorry, I cheated on this one a bit as this photo is from a month ago. Somehow I didn't manage any photos of flowers during the past couple weeks!



water - the Niagara River



neighborhood spot (quarterly) - I took the photo from inside this time. 




nature



adventure - Going with the silly choice here!



favorite - my favorite little girls are my granddaughters




twilight



And a few bonus photos:


Goodbye to the apartment . . . 




and hello to the new house! It's still pretty chaotic, honestly, but at least we got everything into it and made a start on getting organized.


We are currently on vacation - we first went to Ontario for a few days to visit family, picked up my Mum and Dad, and then went to the vacation house we rented near Niagara Falls, NY where the rest of the family joined us. 








For our first family vacation adventure, we walked across to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and visited Bird Kingdom.
















Greetings from the vacation house!



I am sharing my photos every other Thursday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.


The Everyday Images link-up is posted every other Thursday, and is open for two weeks.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

June Prompts - Everyday Images #91
~~~~~

at home (monthly)
who I'm spending time with
what I'm working on
where I'm going
when I'm taking a break
why I'm happy today
signs


Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email

©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Monthly Musings - A Quick Summer Preview




Patty at Good Better Best hosts this monthly sharing of tips, tricks, and conversation starters. I don't manage to participate every month, but I try! This month we are looking ahead to our summer plans and preferences.



1. Tell us about your Memorial Day weekend.
This year we didn't travel to Maryland for the long weekend, partly because we'll see the kids in a few weeks anyway, and partly because we thought we could get some packing done for the upcoming move. Turned out my husband wasn't feeling well, so our plans to go have dinner with friends on Saturday was postponed to Sunday and we stayed home home and didn't do a whole lot. Sunday we went to church and then to our friends' place for dinner, so again, not much packing got done! And then on Monday we were invited to another cookout, so that cut into our packing schedule as well. Of course I started feeling a little under the weather by Monday night, so overall it was a relatively low-key weekend, but I'm glad we did get to spend time with some friends.

2. What were your summer jobs when you were younger?
I don't remember having jobs for the summer only, but I did work/volunteer at our church camps in the summer a couple years. And I did start my part-time jobs during the summer, when I had more hours available, then continued but with fewer hours once school started. First part-time job was at Wendy's, and the second one was at the city's cable company.

3. Ice cream or popsicles? Favorite flavors?
I definitely choose ice cream, though I have to be careful how much I have unless I'm prepared to have an upset stomach. I like almost all ice cream flavors, but my favorites are black raspberry or cookies and cream.



4. What do you like on your burgers and hot dogs?
I usually keep it pretty basic with my burgers and dogs. Burgers should have cheese and maybe bacon, and condiments are mayo, ketchup, and mustard. Sometimes I forgo those condiments and just put Thousand Island dressing on my burger. I usually put just ketchup and mustard on my hot dogs.

5. Beach, lake, or mountains?
Mountains, or ideally a mountain lake, I guess. I like the beach okay, but I don't feel like there's much for me to do there, because I don't like to swim in the ocean. I feel like there are more options for things I like to do in the mountains, and the cabin setting is more appealing to me than a beach house setting too.

Last summer's family vacation house was in the
Deep Creek area of Maryland - mountains!

6. Share any travel for summer 2026.
We only have one trip planned at this point, though I'm sure we'll go to Maryland at some point. Or maybe just for Labor Day. Anyway, in the middle of June, we are meeting all our kids and their families at an Airbnb vacation house in the Niagara Falls area. My parents will be joining us for the week there as well. We will do some touristy things there, like the boat tour at the base of the falls, and spend a day over on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. But we also want to make sure we have plenty of time at the vacation house with the whole family together.

7. Do you visit amusement parks in the summer? Tell us your favorites.
We used to visit amusement parks quite a bit but haven't done so in quite a few years. The one we visited most often was probably Darien Lakes Theme Park (formerly Six Flags Darien Lakes) in upstate New York. We've been to Cedar Point a couple times and I'd say that one is our favorite for rides. Others we've visited are Kings Dominion, Six Flags in Maryland, and HersheyPark. And of course the Disney World parks, but that was usually in the fall. Disney World is the absolute favorite for overall experience.

8. Do you enjoy dining outside in the summer?
Well, yes and no. I do like eating outside, especially at restaurants, assuming the weather is right for it, and there aren't bugs annoying me! For the past couple years at our apartment, our patio was not very nice for sitting out, so we haven't been in the habit of outside dining at home. However, the new house has a very nice deck, so as soon as we have some outdoor furniture I'll be glad to make dining outside a regular thing during good weather!

9. Favorite summer beverage?
My go-to is always water, but my summery favorites are sweet tea, margaritas, white wine, or hard lemonade.



10. Favorite side dish for summer parties? Please feel free to share recipes.
 I just started making this caprese salad platter this spring, but it's become my new favorite for dinner parties or potlucks. It's basically salad served sort of like charcuterie. I like it because with it spread out on a platter instead of heaped in a bowl, the add-ins don't all sink to the bottom, and it's easier for everyone to kind of grab the elements they like and avoid any they don't. 

I hadn't added the balsamic glaze yet

Not really a recipe, but here's what's in it: I start by spreading 50/50 mixed greens on a large platter. Top with rolled or sliced prosciutto, cherry or other small tomatoes, berries or sliced peaches, and marinated mozzarella balls, and maybe olives. I love burrata cheese and add that if it's a smaller group - so there's one burrata or a half burrata per person. Sprinkle on marcona almonds and slivered fresh basil, then drizzle with a little olive oil and some balsamic glaze. 

 What are some your summer plans or summer favorites? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm linking up with Monthly Musings hosted by Patty at Good Better Best.



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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat