We had a big weekend full of outings and adventurous cooking which Patrick may or may not get around to posting about but in the meantime here’s Ms. Madeline Pawlbright doing her favorite thing…ruining her eardrums.

The fates aligned for my birthday weekend/week!  Amy and Nick were in town long enough to have brunch, it was restaurant week in Philly, our rained out game from the Girls Weekend visit in May was rescheduled for Sunday and I was far enough along to get the sonogram to find out we are having a girl!!!  Libby and Nell came down from NYC to join Erin, Patrick and me for a prix fixe Restaurant week dinner at Jose Garces’ AMAZING Amada.

Afterwards we sat through what was possibly the most boring baseball game I’ve ever witnessed (1 run in the 1st and then no one even got to 3rd base the rest of the night!) but we still won!

I’m so glad I was able to spend the day with my besties!  Hey look! finally a prego shot of me!

And here’s a nice shot of our little beauty!

Patrick is so happy it’s a girl that he keeps playing the song Daughter by Loudon Wainright III.  It makes me smile every time I hear it.  I recommend a download of it as well as many of his other songs.  They make great, non-nerve grating kids music.

I’m letting Patrick do the Minneapolis post but I figured since I had a few minutes I would post some pics and a quick roundup of our camping trip that was over a month and a half ago with Marty, Martha, Michelle and Ajay. At the end of July we headed up to the Poconos to Hickory Run State Park.  We arrived Friday night, after work, with light dying quickly and thunderheads rolling in.  We raced against the clock to get the tents and the pop up up so we wouldn’t end up sleeping in our cars while Patrick optimistically started the fire.  It all turned out well and as Marty and I drove in the last stake right before the heavens opened and poured down its contents on us for about 45 minutes.  We dove for the pop up and spent our time making food and stopping Maddie from crying at the thunder claps.  The rain cleared and miraculously the fire was still going at full tilt.  Only Patrick can make that happen.

It was a great weekend full of ladderball, hiking, stone skipping and much needed rest.  (I’m ignoring the part of the story where it started raining non stop on Saturday night and we ran away to my parents Pocono house to sleep since it was only 30 minutes away)

If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting the Minnesota State Fair then you already know that one of their claims to fame are the multitude of things available “on a stick”.  Now some things see very straightforward.  Things like

cotton candy and

hot dogs.

But then things take a turn for the wierd.  Could I interest you in some…

Teriyaki ostrich.

Or perhaps some

pork chops

(show here with the original food on a stick, the Jumbo Smoked Turkey Leg).

Or how about some

Spaghetti and Meatballs!

What does spaghetti and meatballs look like on a stick?  Glad you asked.  We did too.

(It was underwhelming, tastewise)

Eating food on a stick just makes life better.  You don’t need a plate.  You can run about town doing errands while enjoying your so-and-so on a stick.  Sticks are biodegradable!  See!  You are being green by eating on a stick.  And isn’t being green and environmentally conscious what the Minnesota State Fair is all about?  Well, it’s really more about…

Live piglet birth!

Anywho, back to the sticks.  By far and away the favorites of the day were…

Bacon!

(with this disclaimer)

and, drumroll please……………….

Beer!

Yes, folks.  That is beer on a stick.  And when you are done you have your very own paddle!

Some folks even come dressed to face the “on a stick” onslaught, like this guy…

There are so many foods on a stick at the fair that I’ll just give you the gallery to browse through.  My personal favorite (just to say because it sounds like it should be in a Dr. Seuss book) is Walleye, in a bun, on a stick, in a boat.

Enjoy the gallery below and I’ll leave you with my other personal favorite…

Johnny on a stick!  Tastes delicious!

]]> http://stegaliu.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/minnesota-on-a-stick/feed/ 3 liu IMG_0122 IMG_0118 IMG_0124 IMG_0117 IMG_0139 IMG_0147 IMG_0104 IMG_0130 IMG_0127 IMG_0153 IMG_0155 IMG_0161 IMG_0160 http://stegaliu.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/ministegaliu/ http://stegaliu.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/ministegaliu/#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:32:08 +0000 stegaliu http://stegaliu.wordpress.com/?p=820 ]]>

I’m assuming everyone who reads this blog has already seen these but I figured they should be posted for posterity anyway.

Meet miniStegaliu!  See!  It’s waving at you!  Look at the little hand!

More pics coming at the 20 week ultrasound in Septemeber.  And then the real thing in January/February.

This might seem random because I’ve neer talked about my love for the show, So You Think You Can Dance but last night’s performance by Melissa and Ade was so beautiful it had the audience, the judges, the dancers and me sitting at home on my couch, crying. Thought it was worth posting.

All that blogging has left us very, very tired.  More to come as the summer stretches on… and after a good nap.

Just before the Fowlkes left town, we found time to visit the Lafferty’s farm with John and Aidan.  Carter and Aidan got along swimmingly on the Forth, with Carter insisting on referring to Aidan not by his name but simply as “my friend”.  The farm is owned by Kir’s grandfather’s cousin (I’ll let Nell figure out exactly what that makes him in relation to me) and we often go there on nice days to feed the livestock.  It was a real treat to get to go there with Carter.

They took a ride on a tractor.

Fed some goats, which Carter was a little unsure about.

Also a little unsure about the ponies.

So we spent some time down by the pond.

Where Carter was quite sure he wanted to put his feet in the water.

And spent his last few moments with his “friend” looking for fish.

Many thanks to John for taking us over there last minute.  Hopefully more pics of Carter and his friend will be up on the Fowlkes Family Update when Eli gets back from her business trip.  Pressure’s on!

During their trip up for the 4th, Kir and I gave Eli and Thomas some respite from their little one while they poked around Old City.  We took Carter to what is quite possibly the perfect place for kids in Philly, the Please Touch Museum.  Keep an eye on the Fowlkes Family Update for more pictures from their trip later on in the week.

While in New York, Nell and the gang took Kir and I down to Red Hook.  No, we weren’t going to Ikea (we have two of those in Philly, thank you very much).  There are ballfields there where several Latin and South American communities have recreational soccer and baseball leagues that they take very seriously.  They also take their food very seriously, so several top notch vendors set up shop on Sundays.  Needless to say, they have developed *quite* a following among foodies and amateur athletes alike.

Choices abound: Colombian, Venezuelan, Dominican, Mexican, Chilean… you get the picture.  In case you don’t get the picture, here are several. (Note: this is my first time using the “gallery” feature on wordpress, so if it turns out to be a failure I’ll repost the old fashioned way.)